Podcasts about indian pm

Gang gets to talk about a movie called G20 where there is a role played by a fictional Indian PM and expands that to India's image in the world. Then they talk about how the PM spoke about the Muslim Youth by calling them Puncture Wala and then there is a bit on what happened in Pahalgam.Episode Art thanks to NeilteeTune In !

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has won significant facetime with global heavyweight Narendra Modi on a frenetic full day in India. Craig McCulloch reports.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has won facetime and favour with global heavyweight Narendra Modi on a frenetic full day in India, where both pledged greater military cooperation. Luxon spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Dr Swamy and his team analyse the recent visit by Indian PM and its effect on Indian economy.

In our news wrap Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Modi visited the White House hours after President Trump signed a plan to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on many of America's trading partners, a federal judge paused Trump's executive order restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth and Hamas said it will release three Israeli hostages on Saturday allowing the ceasefire with Israel to hold. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In our news wrap Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Modi visited the White House hours after President Trump signed a plan to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on many of America's trading partners, a federal judge paused Trump's executive order restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth and Hamas said it will release three Israeli hostages on Saturday allowing the ceasefire with Israel to hold. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, February 12: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Marseille in order to inaugurate his country's second consulate in France. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky gives an exclusive interview to The Guardian. Also, a petition urging Denmark to buy California goes viral. Finally, Jude Bellingham makes the back pages as his goal seals a dramatic Real Madrid victory over Manchester City.

Guest: Dan Stanton, Director of National Security, Professional Development Institute, University of Ottawa and former CSIS officer

The prime ministers of India and New Zealand held a one-on-one bi-lateral meeting at the East Asia Summit, as New Zealand is pursuing a trade agreement with India, which has the fastest growing and fifth largest economy in the world. Economist focused on trade policy at AUT Dr Rahul Sen spoke to Guyon Espiner.

Christopher Luxon has emerged from a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narenda Modi - wielding a formal invitation to visit - but little sign of tangible progress towards a promised free trade deal. Deputy political editor Craig McCulloch reports.

Listen to the latest SBS Hindi news from India. 28/08/2024

For review:1.  Israel & Hamas Negotiations Continue - No Deal Yet. Philadelphi Corridor still a sticking point. Egypt-based Alghad TV reported Saturday, citing citing an unnamed informed source, that Israel had notified Cairo it was prepared to withdraw under a deal from five security points out of eight discussed along the Philadelphi Corridor. There was no other confirmation of the report.2. Latest US Assistance Package to Ukraine is worth $125 million.Included in this package are air defense capabilities; munitions for rocket systems and artillery; and anti-tank weapons.3. Indian PM Visits Kiev - Encourages Dialogue.India's Narendra Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and offered to help bring peace as the two leaders met in wartime Kyiv.4. The Croatian Ministry of Defense has announced plans to acquire High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, for the country's armed forces.5. Germany to Station Combat Brigade in Lithuania by End of Decade.Lithuania and Germany agreed in December 2023- to station 4,800 military and 200 civilian German personnel at the Rūdninkai Training Area in the country's southeast.6. Taiwan increase annual defense spending to 2.45% GDP.  Objective is to attain 3% GDP in the future.7. US Army awards Fixed-Wing ISR contract to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).Under the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) program, SNC will now be charged with integrating sensing technologies aboard the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet for airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. SNC will largely carry out HADES work at the company's facilities in Hagerstown, Md. 

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on the scale of Israel's Gaza evacuations; the Indian PM's arrival to Ukraine; a high death toll in Pakistan violence; floods in Bangladesh; and the birth of giant panda twins in Germany.

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 21st of August and here are the headlines.CBI officers continued to question of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh regarding the rape and murder of a young doctor on night shift on hospital premises for the sixth consecutive day today. As per the news agency PTI, Ghosh may also be subjected to a polygraph test. An official said that they want to further verify Ghosh's answers, as there have been discrepancies in some of the replies. Meanwhile, healthcare services remain affected at state-run hospitals in West Bengal, as junior doctors continued their strike for the 13th consecutive day. Senior doctors were asked to report to duty in place of junior medics at several hospitals.The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) called for a “Maharashtra bandh” on August 24 to protest against the alleged sexual assault on two young girls at a school in Badlapur. Vijay Wadettiwar, leader of opposition in the state assembly said that MVA allies – Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) headed by Sharad Pawar – took the decision after a meeting in Mumbai. Meanwhile, a local court extended till August 26 the police custody of the man arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two girls at a school in Badlapur.Amid a nationwide strike called by Dalit and Adivasi groups against the Supreme Court's decision to permit the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), police lathicharged protesters in Bihar's Patna, news agency ANI. As many as twenty one organisations have called for Bharat Bandh against the SC order. Left parties, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bahujan Samajwadi Party have extended support to the nationwide bandh. While protests were seen across cities in Bihar, the Bandh saw mixed responses in Rajasthan and Jharkhand. In Odisha, road and rail services were partially affected due to the protests, news agency PTI reported.Ahead of the first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Ukraine, Narendra Modi today said that India hoped for an early return of peace and stability in the region as a “friend and partner”. Modi is headed to Poland today, and then to Ukraine on August 23. This also marks the first-ever visit by an Indian PM to Poland in 45 years. In his departure statment, Modi expressed confidence that “the visit will serve as a natural continuation of extensive contacts with the two countries and help create the foundation for stronger and more vibrant relations in the years ahead”.A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned in central Iran, killing 28 passengers and injuring another 23 people, state media reported today.The accident took place late on Tuesday in the central Iranian province of Yazd and was caused by a technical defect in the bus braking system, according to preliminary investigations made by the Iranian traffic police. Pakistan's consular services in Iran have been invited to Yazd province to follow up on the accident, the official added.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

Latest news from 19 August 2024, as reported in the Ukrainian media. Easy ways to support us: Subscribe to our Patreon to give monthly support https://www.patreon.com/highlightsfromukraine Send us a one-time 'thank you' tip via PayPal at: highlightsfromukraine@gmail.com Out YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3oH111z Special thanks to our top Patreon supporters - Helena Pszczolko O'Callaghan, mattg629, krissi, Jared and Dick Warner!

Days after visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, PM Modi is expected to visit Kyiv around Ukrainian National Day on August 24. This would be his first visit to Ukraine since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022 and the first-ever by an Indian PM since Ukraine's independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union.Considering Modi's Russia visit irked Ukraine and the West, is this visit just to placate the West and strike an equilibrium?Observers say finding a middle ground could serve the global good, but what more can India offer now, two years into the war, after failed peace attempts?In this episode of Geeta's World, our host, Anna Priyadarshini, and the foreign affairs editor at India Today, TV Today Network, Geeta Mohan, discuss!Listen in!Produced by Anna PriyadarshiniSound Mix by Sachin Dwivedi

St. Petersburg to Vladmir via Gujarat - Listen to this episode to know the current happenings around India - Russia - US triangle and how it may play out. Dr Subramanian Swamy along with VHS team walks us through the cities of Russia showing in rear view bygone USSR era and shows the future of things with china in between. Recent visit by current Indian PM invited many reactions and this talk show offers best of perspectives. Happy Listening

Austria, which had been annexed by Nazi Germany, was occupied by Allied Powers after WW2. Austrian foreign minister Karl Gruber appealed to Nehru to mediate in negotiations with USSR.  

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, agreed Friday to work on setting up a visit to Japan by Modi within this year.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been re-elected for a historic third term in office. But surprise results in this election means his party has lost its majority in parliament for the first time in a decade. - नरेन्द्र मोदी लगातार तेस्रो पटक भारतका प्रधानमन्त्री निर्वाचित भएका छन्। तर यस ऐतिहासिक जीतका साथ साथै, उनको दलले एक दशकमा पहिलो पटक संसदमा बहुमत गुमाएको छ।

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been re-elected for a historic third term in office. But surprise results in this election means his party has lost its majority in parliament for the first time in a decade.

Tinubu Congratulates Indian PM Modi On Third Term Re-election ~ OsazuwaAkonedo #BJP #Bola #elections #India #Modi #Narendra #Tinubu Nigeria President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu Has Sent A Congratulatory Message To The Prime Minister Of India, Narendra Modi On The Victory Of His Re-election For The Third Time And Second Person In The History Of India To Be Re-elected Thrice. https://osazuwaakonedo.news/tinubu-congratulates-indian-pm-modi-on-third-term-re-election/05/06/2024/ #Breaking News Published: June 5th, 2024 Reshared: June 5, 2024 8:53 am

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi looks set to secure a third term in office with a narrower-than-expected parliamentary majority. We are live in New Delhi as the vote count continues. On Wall Street the Dow falls 100 points on the first trading day of June as U.S. manufacturing numbers indicate the economy is contracting. Gamestop shares rally following renewed social media activity by the investor known as Roaring Kitty. CNBC learns that Paramount and Skydance agree to merger terms after months of negotiations. Shipping giant Maersk hikes its guidance for the second time in just over a month as Red Sea tensions and soaring demand push freight rates higher. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Was Subhash Chandra Bose 1st Indian PM_ _ Kangana के बयान से कांग्रेस बौखलाई | Anuj Dhar

-Indian PM Modi Inaugurated A Remarkable Hindu Temple In Abu Dhabi -RTA and Etihad Rail Partnership As You Can Use Your Nol Card! -A Large Amount Of Meth And Hashish Was ound Hidden In Someone's Boot -The First Ever Proposal On DXB Airport Rooftop!! -Blu Fiefe Shares How She Found Her Unique Sound In Lebanon -Live With Top Emirati Film Director Nayla Al Khaja

XY Sense, BlackRock predicts shift in US financial markets, survey reveals lack of training for bosses, Google and Indian PM discuss expanding electronics manufacturing, Mark Bezos and David Moross invest in Azimut Holding, US retail sales exceed expectations, activist investor urges VF Corp. to make divestitures, Lockheed Martin reports higher revenue.

President Biden meets Indian Prime Minister Modi ahead of G20 summit, but reporters question why they were not allowed to see it, Senate Republicans fail to pass bill to ban federal mask mandates, some headline moments this week from GOP presidential campaigns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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"Prime ministership is a continuum. If VP Singh had not done Mandal to empower the OBCs, the story for Mr Modi might have been very different. He is today an OBC PM and he's talking about taking power to the most backward, the Mahadalits, the Pasmanda Muslims; those who have been on the peripheries of power are to be given a stake. If VP Singh hadn't done as he did, maybe the BJP would have continued as a Brahmin-Bania party, which it used to be known as" - Neerja Chowdhury, author, 'How Prime Ministers Decide', talks to Manjula Narayan about Indira Gandhi's religiosity, the central issues that each Indian PM has grappled with, Manmohan Singh and the Indo-US Nuclear deal, the friendship between Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao, Sonia Gandhi asking VP Singh and Vajpayee for advice and much more.

Last week saw a flurry of technopolitical developments as the US and India announced a slew of technology and defense deals. In case you missed it, we had a special post dissecting the preliminary details of India's accession to the Artemis Accords. Check it out here! Also tune in to this podcast episode of All Things Policy, where Pranay Kotasthane, Aditya Ramanathan, Bharath Reddy, and Saurabh Todi from the High-Tech Geopolitics team discuss the announcements in the India-US joint statement in the field of Semiconductors, Advanced Telecommunications, and Space.Matsyanyaaya 1: Concerns Surrounding TikTok and the Future of ‘Project Texas'— Anushka SaxenaOn June 16, the CEO of the controversial Chinese media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, sent a letter to US Congress Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), responding to their questions about the company surrounding the storage of data of American users on the platform. In his testimony to a House Committee of the US Congress, Shou had previously stated that "American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore." But now, a Forbes investigation from late May has revealed that this may not entirely be true. This investigation prompted said Senators to seek answers from TikTok, and Shou's letter has confirmed said suspicions.What did Forbes' investigation say?On May 30, Forbes published a report arguing that "over the past several years, thousands of TikTok creators and businesses around the world have given the company sensitive financial information—including their social security numbers and tax IDs—so that they can be paid by the platform. But unbeknownst to many of them, TikTok has stored that personal financial information on servers in China that are accessible by employees there, Forbes has learned."Further, their report argued: "TikTok uses various internal tools and databases from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance to manage payments to creators who earn money through the app, including many of its biggest stars in the United States and Europe. The same tools are used to pay outside vendors and small businesses working with TikTok. But a trove of records obtained by Forbes from multiple sources across different parts of the company reveals that highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China. The discovery also raises questions about whether employees who are not authorized to access that data have been able to. It draws on internal communications, audio recordings, videos, screenshots, documents marked "Privileged and Confidential," and several people familiar with the matter."…And what has Shou said in his letter to Blackburn and Blumenthal?The point of the letter is to confirm that over the past year, TikTok has collaborated closely with Oracle to implement various measures to enhance the protection of the application, systems, and the security of data belonging to its users in the United States. They also announced that in January 2023, they had achieved a significant milestone in this endeavour – the default storage location for US user data has been changed. All US user traffic is currently being directed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. While TikTok's data centres in the US and Singapore are still utilized for backup purposes, the company's ongoing efforts involve removing US users' private data from our data centres. Their objective is to fully transition to Oracle cloud servers in the United States, for which, as of March 2023, they have also started deleting previously stored data from foreign servers.But the controversy has arisen from the second main iteration of the letter, which reads: "TikTok has been clear that there are certain, limited exceptions to the definition of protected data. These exceptions are in place to help ensure interoperability of TikTok as a global platform and were determined as part of TikTok's extensive, multi-year negotiations with CFIUS that have occurred under two Administrations. Exceptions include categories such as public data, business metrics, interoperability data, and certain creator data, if a creator voluntarily signs up for a commercial program to be supported by TikTok in reaching new audiences and monetizing content. As part of Project Texas, we are also designing a trusted path to enable TikTok to respond to global government and litigation demands for documents relating to users."This confirms that if a content creator based out of the US has subscribed to paid content promotion programmes on the platform for the sake of 'interoperability', their data has been redirected to servers abroad… including those in China.The senators have responded in an obviously indignant manner, stating: "We are extremely concerned that TikTok is storing Americans' personal, private data within the reach of the Chinese government. TikTok executives appear to have repeatedly and intentionally misled Congress when answering how the company secures and protects the data of Americans. TikTok's response makes it crystal clear that Americans' data is still exposed to Beijing's draconian and pervasive spying regimes – despite the claims of TikTok's misleading public relations campaign."What is Project Texas?'Project Texas' is Shou Zi Chew's answer to the US Congress's security concerns. Through the Project, TikTok in the US would maintain local data servers disallowing any flow of information of American users outside the country, and Oracle will reportedly own these servers. Moreover, as part of the Project, TikTok might also reveal its algorithm to the US agencies for greater transparency.At this point, the countries of the 'Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance', namely the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, as well as the European Parliament, have already collectively banned TikTok from being installed in government-issued/ federal service devices, to prevent sensitive official data from reaching the hands of China, or any externally based TikTok server that the US may have no jurisdiction over. Moreover, a Bill by US Senator McCaul on 'Deterring America's Technological Adversaries' Act (DATA Act) is already tabled for discussion in Congress since February this year, and it identifies TikTok and its parent company 'ByteDance' major security threats to American users' privacy. With the developments in the debate on TikTok and data governance likely to continue, the latest controversy surrounding the letter may well be the death knell that pushes the US to adopt broader legislation regulating civilian uses of the app. Cyberpolitik Explainer : The Soviet Semiconductor Failure— Revati GandekarSemiconductors are critical for technological sectors that produce electronic components such as transistors, diodes, integrated circuits, and microprocessors. These components are essential for computers, telecommunications, consumer electronics, military, and aerospace. The semiconductor industry played a pivotal role in shaping the technological landscape of the 20th century. While the United States and other Western countries experienced significant growth and innovation in this field, the Soviet Union also made notable advancements in the semiconductor industry. This aims to analyze the rise and fall of the semiconductor industry in the USSR, exploring what contributed to its initial success, the subsequent challenges, and ultimately the industry's failure. In the late 1950s, the USSR recognized the potential of semiconductor technology and sought to develop its industry. They established research institutes, such as the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology and the Lebedev Physical Institute, which focused on semiconductor research and development. Additionally, collaborations with Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany, helped accelerate the industry's growth.Unlike the market-driven approach of the West industries, the USSR's semiconductor sector was primarily state-driven. The Soviet government heavily invested in research and development, providing massive funding and resources to semiconductor projects. This support allowed Soviet scientists and engineers to progress significantly in the field, albeit often in a more secretive and controlled environment.The Soviet semiconductor industry achieved several notable milestones during its heyday. In the early 1960s, Soviet scientists developed the first silicon planar transistor, a breakthrough that revolutionized transistor manufacturing worldwide. The USSR also made significant progress in integrated circuit technology, contributing to advancements in military electronics, space exploration, and industrial automation.While the USSR achieved remarkable progress in the semiconductor industry, it faced numerous challenges and limitations that eventually hindered its growth. One significant factor was the lack of open collaboration and information exchange with Western countries. The USSR's isolationist policies limited access to global semiconductor developments, impeding the industry's ability to keep pace with international advancements. This stifled innovation, as government committees with little technical expertise decided on resource allocation, technology adoption, and production targets. The lack of market-oriented incentives hindered the industry's ability to respond to changing market dynamics and meet international standards.One of the main challenges that the Soviet Union faced in developing its semiconductor industry was the initial ideological opposition to cybernetics, which was seen as a bourgeois pseudoscience that threatened the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. This attitude changed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev adopted a policy that encouraged computer production and scientific research. The Soviet Union realized the strategic implications of semiconductors and set up new facilities to manufacture them in cities like Leningrad and Riga. In 1958, the Soviet government set up a whole new city, Zelenograd, a technical-type Special Economic Zone, just for semiconductor manufacturing.The Soviet Union's centralized planning and bureaucratic system also posed challenges for the semiconductor industry. This top-down approach led to inefficiencies. As a result, in 1973-74, USSR produced only basic types of semiconductors (transistors and diodes), and the production was close to only 2% of the US output. However, the Soviet semiconductor industry soon encountered another problem: technological lag behind the West. Moreover, the Soviet Union could not keep up with the rapid innovation and miniaturization of Western semiconductors, especially after the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959. It also suffered from a shortage of skilled personnel, quality control, and market incentives. To overcome these difficulties, it resorted to copying Western designs and importing Western machinery and components. For example, the KR580VM80A was a clone of the Intel 8080 CPU, and Soviet scientists also replicated the Texas Instruments SN-51, as these processors were able to execute several thousand instructions per second. The USSR also tried to obtain specialized production equipment and complete production processes from the Free World, sometimes indirectly from the US. However, this increased dependence on foreign sources violated international trade regulations and prevented original innovation. The country faced a scarcity of raw materials, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of market-oriented incentives. Additionally, this contributed to poor quality control and an inability to compete with Western semiconductor manufacturers.The global interests of major semiconductor-producing countries, particularly the United States and its allies, also influenced the USSR's failure in the industry. The Cold War rivalry intensified the competition between the Soviet Union and the West. The US and its allies pursued technological advancements in semiconductors to gain a competitive edge in various industries, including telecommunications, computers, and consumer electronics. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the semiconductor industry in the USSR experienced a rapid decline. It marked the end of its semiconductor industry as a coherent entity. Most of the Soviet computer manufacturers ceased operations or switched to other products. A few companies that survived into the 1990s used foreign components and have yet to achieve significant production volumes. The economic turmoil, political instability, and transition to a market-based economy further eroded the industry. The dismantling of the planned economy also led to a brain drain, as skilled professionals looked for opportunities in the private sector or emigrated to other countries.The Soviet Union had some achievements in this field, such as creating the first electronic computer in continental Europe (MESM) and developing some local semiconductor facilities. However, it faced many challenges, including ideological opposition, technological lag, foreign dependence, and internal disorganization. The dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in the fragmentation and decline of its semiconductor industry. In conclusion, complete government intervention in the semiconductor industry in USSR had adverse effects on isolating innovation and lagging behind foreign rivals. The government controlled and centralized the semiconductor industry but failed to foster innovation and competitiveness. The government intervention isolated it as it lagged behind the US and its allies in terms of technology, production, and market share. While the USSR made significant strides in semiconductor research and development, the industry's ultimate decline can be attributed to factors such as limited international collaboration, centralized planning, economic challenges, and the collapse of the Soviet Union itself. Despite its eventual demise, the legacy of the Soviet semiconductor industry serves as a reminder of the importance of collaboration, innovation, and market-oriented policies.Matsyanyaaya 2: The Fission Factor in India-US Ties— Saurabh TodiLast month Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh revealed that Indian scientists are working on developing small modular reactors, or SMRs, one of the most promising emerging technologies in nuclear power. The interest in new technology and India's ambitious plan to build 10 new reactors in a decade is evidence of an enduring commitment to nuclear energy. Recently, the India-US Joint Statement following PM Modi's State Visit also affirmed nuclear energy as a necessary resource to meet our nations' climate, energy transition, and energy security needs. Both leaders also noted the ongoing discussion on developing next-generation small modular reactor technologies in a collaborative mode for the domestic market as well as for export. The nuclear industry is undergoing a renaissance. Over 50 nuclear reactors are under construction globally today. Even countries like South Korea and Japan, which were planning to phase out nuclear power, have reconsidered or scaled back their decisions. The European Union's inclusion of nuclear power as a sustainable investment has further enhanced its appeal. Technological advancements led by start-ups and established companies have further improved the long-term outlook for nuclear power. Innovations such as SMRs, pebble-bed reactors, and molten-salt reactors aim to enhance the safety, flexibility in size, and economic viability of nuclear plants. China also recently issued an operational permit for its first experimental thorium-based reactor.This sector is ripe for further and intensified cooperation between India-US and other close partners such as Japan and Australia.Matsyanyaaya 3: High-Tech Takes Centre-Stage— Pranay KotasthaneI don't think any serious policy analyst—even five years ago—would have anticipated that the press briefing of an Indian PM's Official State Visit to the US would headline concrete actions on high-tech areas such as semiconductors, critical minerals, telecommunications, Space, Quantum Computing, and Artificial Intelligence.Nevertheless, here we are. Technology is now the centrepiece of the India-US partnership. This technology framework includes strategic technologies, such as jet engine manufacturing in India and space, and also commercial technologies, such as telecommunications, optical fibres, and semiconductors.How Does it Matter?Technology occupying the pole position in India-US relations is a big change in the foreign policy outlooks on technology partnerships. Here's why.Phase 1.0After its independence, India interacted with many countries in the West to access advanced industrial technologies. The US specifically assisted India's nuclear and space programmes, helped develop IIT Kanpur, and contributed to the Green Revolution.Phase 2.0But technology became a sore point as the Cold War picked up pace. India faced stringent denial of technology from international regimes in the nuclear and space sectors. The denial of Indian membership into multilateral export control regimes such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) cast a long shadow on India's foreign policy outlook. The US came to be seen as a technology denier. India's default stance over the next five decades was to protect its turf in global technological fora while simultaneously developing and shielding domestic capabilities.This is why the civil nuclear deal in 2005 was such a big deal. It helped India and the US move on from a low-level equilibrium. However, technology still remained a marginal area of cooperation at a time when terrorism and American support for Pakistan gated progress in other sectors.Phase 3.0The Modi-Biden Summit is a firm indication that India's foreign policy outlook on technology has changed. Contributing factors are a growing domestic technological base; an increased presence of Indian talent in the global technology ecosystem; emergent geopolitical realities concerning China; and the rising contribution of crosscutting technologies in national power.The Indian foreign policy establishment now has a far more positive view of technology and the opportunities it offers for collaboration and competition, apart from contestation. India also realises that technology is now a global enterprise where autarchy is not an option. The contemporary concern is to manage interdependence and make technological supply chains trusted, transparent and resilient. More recently, India's advances in large-scale digital public infrastructure—payments, identity and data-sharing—give it the confidence to use technology to deepen diplomatic ties.As for the US, technology has become a primary driver for addressing the China challenge. Nuclear weapons make large-scale conventional conflict unlikely. Similarly, China's disproportionate role in material supply chains makes any large-scale economic decoupling costly. Consequently, contestation has been in the high-technology domain.Apart from the denial of technology to China, it has also meant that the US has changed the foreign policy use of technology towards its partners. Cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS arrangement showed that the US was now willing to share sensitive technologies with partners to counter China. Back then, in the context of India's dependence on Russia for defence systems, I wrote:It is thus in the West's interest to apply this new technology alliance mindset to India. As more options become available, India will find it easier to reduce its dependence on Russia.It seems this has come true to an extent. The US has been more forthcoming in sharing technology than opening its markets. The FTA with India remains a non-starter, but technology collaboration has grown rapidly.What does it Imply?High-tech cooperation is also not as high-stakes as the more contentious areas like trade and the South China Sea. The India-US relationship is so far behind the production possibility frontier on technology, trade and defence that there are enough low-hanging fruits to pick. And that's exactly what we are seeing now.In edition #165, I proposed a tri-axis framework to look at the India-US relationship: state-to-state relations, state-to-people relations, and people-to-people relations. There has never been a problem on the people-to-people axis. As the State Visit shows, state-to-state relations have also turned a corner. However, it is the state-to-people axis that is the problematic axis. Many Indians still seem to harbour a deep frustration with the American State. On the other hand, many Americans also have doubts about India as a partner of strategic importance.Only the two administrations could do something to break this ceiling. By delivering on the asymmetric promises under the technology and defence agreements, the state-to-people axis will finally move on from recollections of the technology denial regime. The announcements are just the beginning; a lot depends on the execution from both sides in these areas.Note: this piece was earlier published on Anticipating the Unintended #216. Check it out here!Our Reading Menu[Explainer] The problem with India's new guidelines on genetically modified insects, by Dr. Shambhavi Naik.[Op-ed] India mustn't miss this chance to supercharge its electronic goods industry, by Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane.[Op-ed] Our PLI schemes are in need of a coherent trade policy, by Satya S. Sahu. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

Desantis calls for 'deadly force' against suspected drug traffickers. Co-chair removed from King County homelessness board after outburst last month. Actor says he was politely escorted out of a Mcmenamins location in Tacoma. // Clips surfaces of Biden joking about state secrets while meeting with the Indian PM. Tape released of Trump talking about classified documents. Post-pandemic test scores show schools struggling to catch up. // Human remains found where actor Julian Sands went missing. Everyone in South Korea is about to get one or two years younger. Tech booms tend to attract grifters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US has secured his country 31 Predator drones worth $3 billion. The purchase could mark a shift global dynamics — historically, India has turned to Russia for its military hardware. Also, an investigation has found that criminal gangs are using sham bank accounts and secret online marketplaces to steal from almost anyone — individuals, churches, corporations — and are routing the money overseas. And, the nonprofit Haitian Education and Leadership Program is assisting people who are unable to pay their tuition bills. Plus, in the latest installment of The World's "Planet Hip Hop" series, we take a look at Argentina's trap music scene.

Indian Prime Minister Modi asked about human rights during state visit to the U.S., House committee releasing IRS whistleblower testimony claiming Biden Administration interference in Hunter Biden tax evasion case, Republican Will Hurd announces run for president, Senate defeats bill to overturn ATF pistol brace rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India wants the American giants' investments and technologies, but Modi's visit won't be the 'turning point' of the sort that the Nixon-Kissinger duo envisaged in the 1970s for China.

On June 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first official state visit to the United States. And if his visits to Australia last month, to Canada in 2015 and to Texas in 2019 are any indication, he'll be given a rockstar welcome.U.S. President Joe Biden has already joked that he wants Modi's autograph because so many people want to see the Indian PM while he's in the United States.Of course, Modi has his critics too, who point to the populist leader's far-right policies and human rights abuses.Yet, as the prime minister of the world's largest democracy, Modi remains one of the world's most popular leaders - not just at home, but among the tens of millions who make up the global South Asian diaspora.Last week, perhaps in an acknowledgement of the power of the South Asian diaspora on Indian elections, the former leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, also visited the United States.In the latest episode of Don't Call Me Resilient, we are asking how important is that diaspora? With India having one of the highest remittance rates in the world, how much does overseas support contribute to Modi's popularity and success? And what kind of an impact could a progressive element of that diaspora have on Indian politics?Anjali Arondekar joins the podcast to sift through all this. She is a professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the founding co-director of the university's Center for South Asian Studies which hosted a discussion last week with Rajiv Gandhi.ResourcesNarendra Modi's First State Visit to the US Has Both National and Global Implications (The Wire)The Modi Question (BBC) A Defeat for Modi's Party in South India Heartens His RivalsIndian politician boasts about getting Muslims killed – on camera (Al Jazeera)The Network of Hindu Nationalists Behind Modi's Diaspora Diplomacy in the U.S. (The Intercept)From the archives - in The ConversationRead more: India's new citizenship act legalizes a Hindu nationRead more: Trump and Modi: birds of the same feather, but with different world viewsRead more: Just who is Narendra Modi, India's man of the moment?Read more: How the conservative right hijacks religionRead more: Narendra Modi has won the largest election in the world. What will this mean for India?Listen and FollowYou can listen to or follow Don't Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.We'd love to hear from you, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and use #DontCallMeResilient.Thank you to Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at TMU and Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion Editor at TCUS who contributed to this episode.

India Policy Watch #1: Silly Season Is Upon UsInsights on issues relevant to India— RSJLate on Friday this week, the RBI issued a circular withdrawing the circulation of ₹2000 denomination banknotes. The RBI clarified that these notes would continue to serve as legal tender, so this isn't another demonetisation. Here's the Indian Express reporting:THE RESERVE Bank of India (RBI) Friday announced the withdrawal of its highest value currency note, Rs 2,000, from circulation, adding that the notes will continue to be legal tender. It said the existing Rs 2,000 notes can be deposited or exchanged in banks until September 30, but set a limit of “Rs 20,000 at a time”.“In order to ensure operational convenience and to avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes can be made up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time, at any bank starting from May 23,” it said.“To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the members of the public, all banks shall provide deposit and/ or exchange facility for Rs 2,000 banknotes until September 30, 2023,” the RBI said.The RBI circular and the press note also attempt to make a convincing, logical case for this decision. There appear to be three reasons for doing this.Thanks for reading Anticipating the Unintended! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.One, the ₹2000 denomination notes seem to have served their useful purpose. They were introduced in November 2016 when the legal tender status of existing ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes in circulation were withdrawn. Looking back, it appears these were introduced to help re-monetise the economy really quickly, which was under the stress of not having adequate new legal tender banknotes. According to the RBI, after this task of re-monetising was completed, the printing of new ₹2000 banknotes was stopped in 2018-19. Therefore, after 5 years of not printing any new notes, this looks like the right time to take them out of circulation completely.Two, since most of the ₹2000 denomination notes were issued prior to 2017, they have apparently completed the typical lifespan of a banknote which is between 4-5 years. In an ideal system, most of these old notes should have come back to the RBI by now. Further, these notes are not seen to be used for transactions anymore. They seem to be just sitting somewhere out there. So, in pursuance of the ‘clean note policy', the best course of action is to withdraw them from circulation. Lastly, there was also an allusion to the ₹2000 notes being often found by various investigative agencies in their haul of black money or frauds. So, somewhere there is a view that withdrawing these notes would smoke these fraudsters out, who are sitting on piles of this unaccounted-for cash.Now, as students of public policy, we must assess this measure based on its intended objectives, the likely costs of doing it and the unintended consequences that are likely to arise. The first reason—that the ₹2000 banknotes have served their purpose, so it is time we take them out—can be scrutinised further. I don't think it was made clear when they were introduced back in November 2016 that the only reason for doing it was to re-monetise the economy quickly. There's a bit of retrofitting of logic here. Also, the decision to stop printing new ₹2000 notes in 2018-19 has meant the total circulation of these notes has been on a decline. In the last four years, the total value of the ₹2000 notes in circulation has gone down from ₹6.5 trillion (over 30 per cent of notes in circulation by value) to about ₹3.6 trillion (about 10 per cent of total circulation by value). I guess, left to itself, we might have had this number slide to a smaller number, say below, ₹1 trillion in the next 3 years. The same point is relevant for the ‘clean note policy' since these notes would have eventually come back if they were not being used for transactions and were already at the end of their lifetime. So, the question is, did we need to accelerate something that would have followed a natural path to the policy objective that's desired? Would another three years of these notes in circulation have been detrimental to some policy objective? It is not clear. What's clear is there will be another season of ordinary citizens queuing up in front of bank branches that will begin on Monday. It might be argued that there won't be any panic because the regulator has made it clear that these notes will continue to be legal tender. But who will receive these notes for any transactions starting today? These notes are as good as useless, and for anyone who uses them for transactions or has stored them for any legal purpose, the only way is to get them exchanged for those notes that are both legal and usable. There's always a sense of schadenfreude among the middle class that it is the rich who will suffer. As was seen during the demonetisation exercise, the poor suffer equally, if not more. The cost of the logistics of sending all ₹2000 notes back from ATMs and branches to the RBI, replacing them with notes of other denominations, the extra hours spent by people exchanging their notes in batches of ₹20,000 and the additional measures to be taken to check for the provenance of the money that will come into the banking system and the risk of frauds during this process are all additional costs to the system. There should be a more compelling upside to these costs except to argue that these notes have served their purpose.Lastly, on high denomination notes abetting corruption and fraud, there's some data from experiences in other countries that suggest this. However, experience in India has shown after the initial ‘disruption', the system finds a new equilibrium, and things continue as usual. The idea that demonetisation would aid the digital economy and will bring down cash in circulation was compelling at that time. But as seen, over time, cash in the economy continued to rise despite a significant ramp-up in digital transactions, which might have happened anyway because of UPI. There are more fundamental reasons for corruption that need to be addressed than making a case for smaller denomination notes. Anyway, the corruption argument never gets old in India, where everyone assumes that, barring them, everyone else around is corrupt. So, the usual arguments have started surfacing on social media that this will impact a small minority of people, and they anyway need to answer why they were hoarding these high denomination notes. And, there's the political masterstroke argument which suggests this will derail the fundraising ability of the opposition in this election year. I'm not sure if that's supported by data because we had the unusual scenario of almost 100 per cent of the invalidated denomination notes during demonetisation eventually returning to the RBI. Nobody was wiser when that happened. The only upside at the end of this exercise will possibly be with banks that will have a temporary increase in their deposits. The scramble for deposits that was on because of shrinking liquidity will abate for some time. That will possibly help them support loan growth that was dependent on deposit mobilisation. That might not be a bad outcome, but it is a torturous way to get there. But then we like convolutions.In parallel, there was another interesting piece of policy-making going on. The TCS (tax collected at source) on international credit card spending outside of India. Earlier during the week, reports emerged that all such spends will now attract a TCS of 20 per cent which can then be recovered by individuals at the time of filing their annual return. The Indian Express on Tuesday reported:THE CENTRAL Government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, in a late night notification Tuesday amended rules under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, bringing in international credit card spends outside India under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). As a consequence, the spending by international credit cards will also attract a higher rate of Tax Collected at Source (TCS) at 20 per cent effective July 1.The notification brings transactions through credit cards outside India under the ambit of the LRS with immediate effect, which enables the higher levy of TCS, as announced in the Budget for 2022-23, from July 1. This is expected to help track high-value overseas transactions and will not apply on the payments for purchase of foreign goods/services from India.Prior to this, the usage of an international credit card to make payments towards meeting expenses during a trip abroad was not covered under the LRS. The spendings through international credit cards were excluded from LRS by way of Rule 7 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transaction) Rules, 2000. With the latest notification, Rule 7 has now been omitted, paving way for the inclusion of such spendings under LRS.Now, what could be the reason for this? The Chief Economic Advisor in a column in the Indian Express gave an insight into the thinking:It is a fact that remittances under LRS have increased multi-fold in the last few years, and as per data published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), LRS remittances which were Rs 0.9 trillion in FY2019, crossed Rs 2 trillion in FY2023. During FY2023, an interesting trend was noticed in the remittances for deposits, purchase of immovable property, investment in equity/debt, gifts/donations and travel. Remittances under these heads constituted almost 70 per cent of the total, representing a year-on-year growth of 74 per cent. Foreign travel alone was almost Rs 1.1 trillion in FY2023, a three-fold increase from the pre-Covid period. In all of these, payments made through credit cards are not reflected as such payments were not subject to the LRS limit. This is an anomaly that needed to be fixed anyway.We are back to the old Indian argument. There are people who are spending money on their credit cards abroad that's not captured in the LRS limit. We need to know who these people are and what is the amount they are spending. That's fair. It is an information problem that needs to be solved. Find out who are the people spending this and add it back to their LRS eligibility. Better still, increase the LRS limit so that people can spend more freely. We aren't in the 70s that we need to conserve foreign exchange through means that make the lives of ordinary citizens difficult. Why should a tax be applied to an information problem? And it is conceptually fine to say that this tax amount is only deposited with the government during the transaction and can be recovered at the time of filing the annual return. But there are way too many complications at an operational level, including upfront working capital costs. The challenge of tracking international spending, separating corporate and individual purchases and optimising for the overall LRS limit, especially if people have kids studying abroad, will burden individuals. For card companies, it will mean helping customers track this, figuring out all sorts of exception scenarios when a customer cancels a foreign transaction on which a TCS has already been paid or where they default on payment but the card company has already deposited the TCS with the government. Instead of simplifying the tax structure and remittances, the attempt is to complicate things to catch hold of a few exceptions. And those who claim this impacts only 7 per cent of people who have a passport, I can only say why inconvenience even 1 per cent of citizens if there's no compelling motive. Thankfully, some sense seems to have prevailed, and we had a clarification from the finance ministry on Friday. The ministry clarified:Concerns have been raised about the applicability of Tax Collection at Source (TCS) to small transactions under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) from July 1, 2023. To avoid any procedural ambiguity, it has been decided that any payments by an individual using their international Debit or Credit cards up to Rs 7 lakh per financial year will be excluded from the LRS limits and hence, will not attract any TCS.Small mercies. But it still doesn't fully do away with an unnecessary measure. India Policy Watch #2: Technological Learning is a Marathon, Not a SprintInsights on issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneElectronics manufacturing is a hot topic nowadays, as it is being seen as a lead indicator of India's improving manufacturing prowess. Not a week goes by without reports on this topic, ranging from the mobile exports clocked every quarter and the difficulties encountered by companies in localising production to the uptake of the Production-linked Incentives (PLI) scheme to encourage production. Broadly speaking, the analyses can be classified into two simple categories: detractive (“hum se naa ho paayega” type) and presumptuous (“Hum jahan khade ho jaate hain line wahi se shuru hoti hain” type). I contend that both kinds of analyses make a common mistake: they don't appreciate a concept of called technological learning. This leads them to reach similar conclusions, albeit through different perspectives.Dodgson, a scholar of innovation, defines technological learning as “the ways firms build and supplement their knowledge-bases about technologies, products and processes, and develop and improve the use of the broad skills of their workforces”. The assumption is that firms build additional capabilities over time as and when they keep getting better at doing relatively simpler tasks, projects, and processes. The detractors of India's nascent electronics manufacturing are quick to point out that Indian manufacturers' high failure rates are a clear indication that India cannot do large-scale manufacturing. For instance, the news report that iPhone casings produced at Tata's Hosur plant had a 50 per cent failure rate, has become an oft-cited datapoint to downplay India's manufacturing capabilities. While such critiques should not be dismissed lightly, it's also important not to overreact. Electronics manufacturing in China faced pretty much the same challenges; in fact, Chinese manufacturers had far lower yields in the initial phases. Technological learning and upgradation happen over time; it is unrealistic to expect immediate success in this field.On the other hand, fervent supporters believe that the Indian government can boost manufacturing output and export competitiveness merely by implementing industrial policies and import substitution measures. In this model, PLI schemes, higher import tariffs, and infant industry protection are necessary and sufficient conditions for building India's electronics manufacturing sector. This line of thinking also ignores technological learning. Indian firms will have to begin with the assembly of imported components necessarily. In fact, we should be willing to digest a decrease in the domestic value added per unit of demand over the next few years, as was the case in China and Viet Nam. As Indian manufacturing achieves global scale, local content addition will increase by default, as firms seek to optimise costs, and employees go on to become local entrepreneurs. The hurry to localise domestic value addition runs at odds with exporting competitiveness, a point that the self-assured are ignoring.And so, both viewpoints are misguided due to their disregard for the role of technological learning in manufacturing development. It is crucial to acknowledge that gaining proficiency in manufacturing takes time. Naushad Forbes Business Standard article explains this process of learning took place in East Asia:Firms like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, TSMC and Acer did not start as global brands. They began with outsourcing, as original equipment manufacturers or OEMs, building manufacturing operations of global scale. They used their demanding buyers as a source of technology that made them world-competitive. But they did not stop there. They invested in R&D, as process innovation, to make manufacturing more efficient. They then offered their buyers products with new and improved design, moving up the scale to own design and manufacture or ODM, claiming a piece of the innovation rents that came from better products.  This required them to invest in substantial product design capabilities, which over time completely outclassed and replaced the design capabilities of their buyers. And, finally, with world-competitive manufacturing and leading-edge product design in place, they made the shift to own brand manufacture or OBM, launching their own brands, going beyond their home market, spreading step by step into the world. This is the story of Samsung in microwaves and semiconductors, LG in TV sets, Hyundai in cars and excavators, TSMC in microprocessors, and Acer in laptops. This OEM to ODM to OBM story is one of continuous learning. It's crucial to bring technological learning back in conversations on India's manufacturing.P.S.: Earlier this week, the government announced another PLI scheme for "laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers etc.", with a budgetary outlay of ₹17000 crores over six years. If the government appreciated technological learning, it would accompany this PLI with a reduction in customs duties. Competitive exports need competitive imports of intermediate components and equipment. Matsyanyaaya: Launch India-US Trade into Another OrbitBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneAhead of the Indian PM's visit to the US next month, some of us at Takshashila propose an ambitious agenda on the trade front in this document—increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and $1 Trillion by 2040.Here're the pathways to achieve this goal:* Expand the existing US-India 2+28 ministerial dialogue: This dialogue currently comprises the Foreign and Defence ministers from both countries. However, to comprehensively address the intricacies of global trade relations, it would be beneficial to transition to a 3+3 format to include both nations' trade and commerce representatives. * Capitalize on the role of states: The economic landscape in India is witnessing a shift towards the states. Various factors that significantly influence business operations, such as land acquisition and law and order, predominantly lie under the jurisdiction of individual states. Owing to India's vast size and diverse nature, different states have fostered their unique strengths and advantages. The trade relations between the two nations can be further enhanced through a partnership where groups of states engage in reciprocal visits each year, bolstering trade ties and fostering mutual growth. * The Trade Policy Forum (TPF) must be held every year. It is the right cadence to ensure disciplined action and follow-through on ambitious goals. The institutional memory of the TPF will work to create continuity. The old adage "we overestimate what can be done in one year and underestimate what can be done in 5 or 10 years" is particularly applicable here. * The organic growth in trade between companies on either side needs only the occasional enablement. Trade in technology services, pharmaceuticals, SaaS, industrial goods and many other sectors can continue. It will benefit from forums like the US-India Business Council (USIBC) that seek to remove frictions in the ordinary conduct of business and shine a light on some sticky areas. * Create plurilateral trade partnerships. Until now, the US and India do not together find themselves in any regional trade partnership. The revived QUAD, with a heavy security focus, will be one such partnership with significant trade implications. The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) proposed this summer is a promising way to advance on a partnership, but the partnership details must be worked out. For the greater good, India and the US will have to work out sticking points in the data & privacy sections of the agreement. There appears to be significant mutual concurrence on tax, anti-corruption and clean energy, the other three pillars of the IPEF agreement. * Trade in high-technology sectors would get a fillip from the two governments setting up specific framework agreements. The new US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) is an example of a framework agreement that could kickstart interaction between government, industry and academia in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, 5G/6G telecommunications, quantum computing, biotech, deep ocean and space technologies. * In commercial and societal terms, the exchange of people will be the biggest binding factor between the two countries. In the short term, reciprocal visa access and availability should be addressed on a priority basis. In the longer term, both sides should work on Indians being separated from the general pool of "H1" applicants and in a category of their own. Additionally, the thresholds for each country employing citizens of the other should be brought down gradually. [From Narayan Ramachandran et al., “Time to Launch the US-India Trade Relationship into Another Orbit,” Takshashila Policy Advisory 2023-02]HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* [Article] Anupam Manur on the ₹2,000 note withdrawal in Moneycontrol — “Like a nightmare resulting from a traumatic experience for a person suffering from PTSD, demonetisation came back to haunt the collective consciousness of this country when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to recall the 2000 rupee note.”* [Podcast] In the next Puliyabaazi, Devashish Dhar talks about cities, urbanisation, working in government, etc. Strongly recommend it to people considering public policy as a career option.* [Articles 1, 2, & 3] Naushad Forbes' series on private R&D and national innovation in Business Standard is a must-read for those interested in technology geopolitics and tech policy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

Global Policy Watch: Much Ado About De-dollarisationReflections on global policy issues— RSJThis week, Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to let the U.S. default on its debt if the Democrats don't agree on massive budget cuts. Trump likened the people running the U.S. treasury to ‘drunken sailors', an epithet I can get behind. Default is not something Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, can even begin to imagine. As CNBC reported, Yellen chose strong words to express her views if the debt ceiling was not raised by the House:“The notion of defaulting on our debt is something that would so badly undermine the U.S. and global economy that I think it should be regarded by everyone as unthinkable,” she told reporters. “America should never default.”When asked about steps the Biden administration could take in the wake of a default, Yellen emphasized that lawmakers must raise the debt ceiling.“There is no good alternative that will save us from catastrophe. I don't want to get into ranking which bad alternative is better than others, but the only reasonable thing is to raise the debt ceiling and to avoid the dreadful consequences that will come,” she told reporters, noting that defaulting on debt can be prevented.There is more than a grain of truth there in some of her apparent hyperbole. The U.S. hegemony in the global financial system runs on trust that they won't default on their debt. Take that trust out of the equation, and what have you got left? This is somewhat more salient in these times when there's a talk of de-dollarisation going around. Russia and China have been keen to trade in their own currencies between themselves and other partners who are amenable to this idea. And they have found some traction in this idea from other countries who aren't exactly bit players in the global economy. In March this year, the yuan overtook the dollar in being the predominant currency used for cross-border transactions in China. Here's a quick run-through of what different countries have been doing to reduce their dollar dependence. Russia and Saudi Arabia are using yuan to settle payments for gas and oil trade. Russia offloaded a lot of US dollars in its foreign reserves before the start of the war and replaced it with gold and yuan. It will possibly continue building yuan reserves in future. Brazil is already doing trade settlements in yuan and is also using the CIPS (China's response to US-dominated SWIFT) for international financial messaging services. Argentina and Thailand seem to be also doing more of their trade with China in yuan. And I'm not including the likes of Pakistan, Bangladesh and other smaller economies that have politically or economically tied themselves up with China and are following suit. And a few weeks back, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, also raised the issue of strategic autonomy of the EU after his visit to Beijing. As Politico reported:Macron also argued that Europe had increased its dependency on the U.S. for weapons and energy and must now focus on boosting European defense industries. He also suggested Europe should reduce its dependence on the “extraterritoriality of the U.S. dollar,” a key policy objective of both Moscow and Beijing. “If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won't have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals,” he said.You get the picture. This idea of de-dollarisation seems to be gaining traction. How real is this possibility? There are possibly three lenses to look at this issue, and we will cover them in this edition.Why the recent hate for the dollar?A useful area to start with is to understand where this desire to find alternatives to the dollar is emerging. I mean, it is obvious why Russia and China are doing it and the way the U.S. used its dominance over the financial system to shut out Russia. Companies were barred from trading with Russia, Russian banks couldn't access SWIFT and networks like Visa and Mastercard stopped their operations. Russia got the message but so did other large economies that didn't think of themselves firmly in the U.S. camp. ‘What if' questions began circulating among policymakers there. What if, in future, a somewhat unpredictable U.S. president decides to do this to us? And once you start building these scenarios, you soon realise the extent of dependence the global financial system has on not just the dollar but, beyond it, to the infrastructure and rules of the game developed by the U.S. corporations. There's been a measured retreat ever since. In India, a visible example of this has been the push toward Rupay by the regulator and the government in lieu of Visa and Mastercard. But merely looking at the U.S. response to Russia as the reason would be missing the longer-term trend. In his book ‘Bucking the Buck', Daniel McDowell shows data on the annual number of executive orders that instruct the US Treasury to enforce financial sanctions against specially designated nationals (SDNs). These were rarities in the 70s. By the early 2000s, such annual orders were in their low twenties and in the last few years, they have reached the three-figure mark. It is clear that the U.S. is using its enormous clout as the owner of the global reserve currency and financial infrastructure to punish those who fall out of line. This is war by other means. Interestingly, this ‘sanctions happy' behaviour in the last decade coincided with a wave of populist leaders coming into power in many countries who would not like to be seen as weak or held to ransom by the U.S. This has meant these states have used strategic autonomy as a plank to pursue their interests to go around the U.S. built system. I don't see this trend abating any time soon. The future U.S. administrations will continue to use financial coercion as a tool because it appears bloodless, and the larger economies will continue freeing themselves from this hegemony one system at a time. The tough and fortuitous road to becoming a reserve currencyBut does that mean we will eventually end up with de-dollarisation? Well, there are two things to appreciate here. How does a currency become a reserve currency? How did the dollar become one? And once it does, what keeps it there? If you go back a little over a hundred years, most countries in the world pegged their currencies to gold as a means of facilitating cross-border trade and stabilising currencies. But during World War 1, it became difficult for these countries to fund their war expenses without printing paper money and devaluing their currencies. Britain continued adhering to the gold standard, but it was difficult for it to sustain its war efforts too. It had to borrow to run its expenses during and after WWI. Between the two wars, the U.S. became a huge exporter of goods and armament to the rest of the world, and it took the payment in gold. By the time World War 2 was ending, the U.S. had hoarded most of the world's gold, which made going back to the gold standard impossible because other countries just didn't have any gold. When the allied nations met at Bretton Woods to discuss the new financial world order after the war, it became quite clear that the only real option of managing a foreign exchange system was one that would have all other currencies pegged to the dollar, which would then be linked to gold. It is important to understand that there was no specific effort made to replace Pound as the international reserve currency. It just became inevitable, given the mix of circumstances. Around the same time and for a decade after, the U.S. led the post-war reconstruction efforts in Western Europe and Japan, which gave it a political clout that was unmatched. This political dominance, along with the remnants of the Bretton Woods agreement, is what runs the global currency system in our times, though, in the 70s, the U.S. delinked the dollar from gold as well. That led to the floating exchange rates system that exists today and the dollarisation of the global economy. Over time countries learnt to accumulate their foreign exchange reserves in dollars by buying U.S. treasury bills. Together with the IMF and WB and the associated ecosystem that got built around the U.S. dollar, it became the force that it is today. Now for any currency to replace the U.S. dollar, it has to have the happy coincidence of being a dominant political and economic force, a lack of alternatives for the countries and an alternative to Bretton Wood (or a modification of the same) which can replace the current system. It is very difficult to imagine how something like this can happen unless there is a global crisis of a magnitude where a rebaselining of everything becomes the only way ahead. That brings us to the other point on what sustains the dollar as a reserve currency. There are multiple factors at play here. There are, of course, the network effects of the dollar being deeply embedded in so many commercial ecosystems that taking it out is rife with friction and pain. Also, the dollar is fully convertible, which makes it convenient for others to use it as a store of value. It has remained stable; its market is deep and liquid, enabling easy conversion of bonds to cash and vice versa; there exists a mature insurance market to cover currency risks and above all, we have an implicit guarantee that the U.S. will not default on its debt. This is a trust that has been built over the last eight decades because the world believes the U.S. will run a rule-based order with a strong legal framework to ensure no single person can override rules or conventions. Yawn when you hear Yuan as the next reserve currency So, how does one see the efforts of China or Russia to wean themselves away from this dollar-dominated system? Will the yuan be able to replace the dollar ever? Apart from the points mentioned above, which led to the dollar being in a unique place in the world in the post-war days and which won't repeat itself any time soon, there are other fundamental issues with the idea of the yuan as a reserve currency. To begin with, it isn't convertible, and China runs a ‘closed' capital account system. It is difficult to move money in and out of the country freely. You will need approvals. The opaque legal system, the authoritarian one-party (one-man) rule and the lack of depth in the yuan market mean it is impossible to imagine any prudent central bank risking its entire foreign exchange reserve in yuan. China could turn into an economic giant by exploiting a global trade order without adhering to its associated political expectations. But to think it could do the same in currency exchange order is a pipe dream. Even the numbers of the recent past bear this out. For all the talk of de-dollarisation, there has been a net sell-off of Chinese government bonds by private players in the last year. No one wants to sit on Chinese bonds if things go south in the global political economy. The central banks around the world who have wanted to diversify away from the dollar in their foreign exchange reserve don't seem to have walked their talk. Even they have been net sellers of Chinese government bonds barring the initial days of the Ukraine war. Lastly, China is still struggling to raise consumption in its economy because, with a closed capital account and surplus capacity, it doesn't know what to do with the surplus yuan. Without consumption going up, it will make things worse if it starts becoming a reserved or a semi-reserve currency for the world. The probability of de-dollarisation seems to be hugely exaggerated at this moment. The alternatives are worse, and for those who complain about the coercive nature of U.S. diplomacy because of their financial clout, wait till you have China with that power. You can check with Sri Lanka for how it feels to be under China's thumb economically. Also, none of the hype around bitcoin, stablecoin or CBDC is ever going to materialise for them to replace the dollar. The recent events have shown the fairly flimsy ground on which the bitcoin exchanges (banks?) run. It is difficult to see the lack of trust to change in a hurry. But this also doesn't mean the trend towards diversification of central banks' reserves will buck soon. The gradual move towards reducing dependence on the dollar and its associated ecosystem will continue. Should the U.S. be worried about this? It shouldn't, really. It draws enormous privilege for being the reserve currency of the world. It makes its job to borrow or access money very easy. And the fact that it is a safe haven means it benefits from every crisis. But it should also be clear that this privilege has hurt its ability to export because the dollar remains stronger than it should. This, in turn, has led to the financialisation of the U.S. economy, with the rich getting richer and an evisceration of the U.S. manufacturing capabilities. Reserve diversification won't be such a bad thing for them. But that might mean a reduction of a few hundred basis points in what central banks hold globally in U.S. treasuries. That won't de-dollarise the world. For that to happen, something catastrophic will need to happen. Maybe that's why Yellen used that word about the possibility of the U.S. defaulting on its debt. That's the kind of self-goal they must avoid.  Matsyanyaaya: The Two Equilibria in India-US RelationsBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneThere has been a healthy debate over the last couple of weeks on the state of the India-US relationship. In a Foreign Affairs article, Ashley Tellis, a key figure in the 2005 civil nuclear deal, a well-known realist scholar, and a strong proponent of stronger India-US relations, cast some doubt on the burgeoning partnership. The article, provocatively titled ‘America's bad bet on India', concludes thus: The United States should certainly help India to the degree compatible with American interests. But it should harbor no illusions that its support, no matter how generous, will entice India to join it in any military coalition against China. The relationship with India is fundamentally unlike those that the United States enjoys with its allies. The Biden administration should recognize this reality rather than try to alter it.Tellis reasons that India wants a closer relationship with the US to increase its own national power, not to preserve the liberal international order or to collaborate on mutual defence against China. He further argues that the US ‘generosity' towards India is unlikely to help achieve its strategic aim of securing meaningful military contributions from India to defeat any Chinese aggression in East Asia or the South China Sea. As you would imagine, this article put the cat amongst the pigeons. However, I agree with the fundamental argument. Expectation setting is important, and it is true that India is unlikely to behave like a weaker ally; the US-India relationship will most certainly have some shades that the US-China relationship had between 1980 and 2005. In what seems to be a rejoinder to this article, Ashok Malik—previously a policy advisor in the external affairs ministry—argues that fixating on India's role in a hypothetical war on Taiwan is a wrong question to ask, an imagined roadblock that even the Biden administration isn't overly concerned about. Instead, Malik lists the growing relationship in several domains to conclude that the two administrations are far more sanguine, having figured out an approach to work with each other despite key differences. I agree with this view as well. There's no doubt that the India-US relationship has grown across sectors despite fundamental differences during an ongoing war in Europe. It is easy to. observe the shift in India-US conversations at the policy execution levels. The talks are no longer about the whys but about the hows. Gone are the days when the India-US partnership conversations began with Pakistan and ended with Russia, with the two sides taking potshots at each other in between. The conversations are about debating realistic projects that India and the US could accomplish together in areas such as space, biotechnology, semiconductors, and defence. How, then, can I agree with two seemingly opposing views? Because they aren't mutually exclusive. The India-US relationship is so far behind the production possibility frontier on technology, trade and defence that there are enough low-hanging fruits to pick. And that's exactly what we are seeing now. But if the US president were to change, or if there were to be an escalation around Taiwan, the India-US relationship would likely hit a ceiling that Tellis warns about. In edition #165, I proposed a tri-axis framework to look at the India-US relationship: state-to-state relations, state-to-people relations, and people-to-people relations. There has never been a problem on the people-to-people axis. Like Mr Malik, I, too, think that state-to-state relations have turned a corner. However, it is the state-to-people axis which is the problematic axis. Many Indians still seem to harbour a deep frustration with the American State. On the other hand, many Americans also have doubts about the Indian State as a strategic actor. Finally, it's only the two administrations that can break this ceiling. The trade-offs aren't easy, but they are real. Without the Indian government committing itself to do more to counter the Chinese military threat in the seas, the US is unlikely to transfer cutting-edge technologies. Likewise, unless the US quits its stubbornness to give more Indian products preferential access to its markets or delivers on the asymmetric promises under the technology and defence agreements, India is unlikely to revise its stance. In other words, the stage is set for the Indian PM's official state visit to the US next month. India Policy Watch #1: Generalists vs General EquilibriumInsights on issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneNon-civil services folks who have worked in governments are almost always extremely insightful. Perhaps, their experience working with the bureaucracy gives them a filter to reject impractical ideas, while their breadth of knowledge allows them to take a long-term view of policy ideas. These "scholar-warriors" are often able to get to the root of issues.One such person is Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was a guest on this week's Ideas of India podcast. Among the many insights he delivers, one that switched a lightbulb on for me was the segment on "generalists vs specialists" in government. While this is an old debate, one that civil service "mains" exam takers would not so fondly recall, this conversation made me think somewhat differently. Responding to a question on the HR problems in government, Ahluwalia says:There's big bias within the government against people wanting to specialize. The IAS' view of itself is, it's a generalist service. This I think is a bit of a colonial hangover. You come from England to rule the country; expertise is looked down upon. But in this day and age, we ought to be encouraging the people who are really into IT—there's no point putting someone who's really made up his mind that he wants to be in IT to have a stint in education and health and road transport and that sort of stuff.At another point in the episode, he begins the journey of a policy reform as follows:In the Indian system, and maybe it's true in all systems, every area is assigned to a ministry, and changes of policy that belong (in a narrow sense) to that area are the responsibility of the ministry. There are two problems here. One is, the functioning of a system as a whole requires you to do more than just add up what needs to be done in each area, because you want to look at what the economist would call a general equilibrium approach. If you want to reach a particular result, you've got to do A over here, B over there, C over there.I think there's a deeper insight at the intersection of these two dimensions. The “generalists vs specialists” debate masks another important dimension of effectiveness—whether the person approaches a problem with general equilibrium thinking or is limited to partial equilibrium analysis.General equilibrium analysis takes into account the long-term interactions of a large number of economic agents. In mathematical terms, it is based on the assumption that several variables can change at once in response to a policy change. Partial equilibrium analysis, on the other hand, focuses narrowly on one sector and a handful of variables. Ahluwalia explains that generalist civil service officers can default to partial equilibrium analysis because they are blinkered by their ministry mandates and interests. For example, few bureaucrats from the Ministry of Commerce will advocate that a unilateral lowering of tariffs will be beneficial to India, even though a general equilibrium analysis says so. However, many specialists also fall into this same trap, albeit for different reasons. An urban planner is likely to hate mixed-use neighbourhoods, while an environmentalist might argue that all mining is evil. These partial equilibria arise from the failure to see the interlinkages across the economy, a crucial aspect of general equilibrium analysis. So, irrespective of whether you are a generalist or a specialist, what matters is whether the bureaucrats are able to approach problems with a general equilibrium mindset. The current government mechanism to move career bureaucrats across ministries through deputations is probably a sub-optimal way to achieve competence in this dimension. The second mechanism is to have intra-ministerial committees or expert committees. Organisations such as the Planning Commission, Niti Aayog, or the PMO are supposed to bring in a general equilibrium mindset as well. The question is which of these bodies is best equipped to do this in this way. Probably, another way to push towards this equilibrium is to have economists and behavioural sociologists in many ministries so that their internal recommendations take a broader view beyond the self-protection of ministerial turfs. PS: There's a nice chapter on “Trace the general equilibrium effects” in In Service of the Republic by Shah & Kelkar.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* A Twitter friend asked for book recommendations to understand post-independence Indian economic history. These are the ones that came to mind:* India's Long Road: The Search for Prosperity by Vijay Joshi* India: the Emerging Giant by Arvind Panagariya* India's Tryst with Destiny by Arvind Panagariya and Jagdish Bhagwati* Backstage: The Story Behind India's High Growth Years by Montek Singh Ahluwalia &* Changing India volume, this set is a compilation of Manmohan Singh's papers (reading level: advanced) * [Podcast] This Grand Tamasha episode is a great introduction to internal security in India, backed by the latest research and data on a crucial yet under-discussed topic. * [Podcast] Should there be a caste census? Here's a Puliyabaazi on this topic that's sure to gain more traction as the national election draws near. We present two opposing perspectives, one by Yogendra Yadav and the other by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, before reaching our own divergent conclusions. Listen in and tell us what you think. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

Indian PM in Australia, Push stop gambling ads during sports broadcasts, Tougher rules for Buy Now, Pay Later providers, Further IR changes flagged and the move to limit "degree inflation"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck new agreements with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen, while raising concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Sydney for talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - the sixth for the two leaders. Likely to focus on the countries' defence and trade relationships, and transitions to clean energy sources, also at play are regional influence and human right issues.

While the Quad meeting has been cancelled, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still travelling to Australia for bilateral talks. A precinct in the Sydney suburb of Harris Park is on track to be officially known as 'Little India' - and members of the Indian-Australian community hope support for an official name change will gather support during Mr Modi's first visit in almost 10 years.

In this Hindi Newsflash: Thousands flock to Sydney to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Victoria's Treasurer Tim Pallas unveils his budget plan to pay down the state's Covid debt: And in sport, Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings to battle against each other in first qualifier of IPL 2023 and more.

While the Quad meeting has been cancelled, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will still travel to Australia for bilateral talks. A precinct in the Sydney suburb of Harris Park is on track to be officially known as 'Little India' - a change supporters hope will gather support during Mr Modi's first visit in almost 10 years.

In this latest Hindi bulletin: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese returns home from G7 summit as Indian Prime minister expected to reach Australia tonight; Indian PM Modi co-chairs Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation; Socceroos to play a friendly match with Argentina in China next month and more.

Gurmeet Singh Tuli, President of Little India Australia, says that despite the Parramatta City Council passing a motion in 2019 to rename three streets of Harris Park to 'Little India', a formal application has yet to be lodged with the official naming board. - 'ਲਿਟਲ ਇੰਡੀਆ ਆਸਟ੍ਰੇਲੀਆ' ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਗੁਰਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਤੁਲੀ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ 'ਪੈਰਾਮਾਟਾ ਸਿਟੀ ਕਾਉਂਸਿਲ' ਵੱਲੋਂ 2019 ਵਿੱਚ 'ਹੈਰਿਸ ਪਾਰਕ' ਦੀਆਂ ਤਿੰਨ ਗਲੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਨਾਂ ਬਦਲ ਕੇ 'ਲਿਟਲ ਇੰਡੀਆ' ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਮਤਾ ਪਾਸ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਅਧਿਕਾਰਤ ਨਾਮਕਰਨ ਬੋਰਡ ਕੋਲ ਰਸਮੀ ਅਰਜ਼ੀ ਦਾਇਰ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾਣੀ ਅਜੇ ਵੀ ਬਾਕੀ ਹੈ।

In this latest Hindi bulletin: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced energy bill reliefs for over five million households in the upcoming budget; Indian PM congratulates King Charles III on his coronation; Remco Evenepoel storms to victory in stage one of Giro d'Italia, and more.

Listen to the latest SBS Hindi news from India. 05/04/2023

It's been three years since Covid was officially declared a pandemic with the global deathtoll nearing 7 million Anthony Albanese has held formal talks with the Indian PM in New Delhi Wins to Cronulla and the Broncos in the NRL  Idris Elba's diet change for his role in Netflix movie Luther - the Fallen SunSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been three years since Covid was officially declared a pandemic with the global deathtoll nearing 7 million Anthony Albanese has held formal talks with the Indian PM in New Delhi Wins to Cronulla and the Broncos in the NRL  Idris Elba's diet change for his role in Netflix movie Luther - the Fallen SunSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been three years since Covid was officially declared a pandemic with the global deathtoll nearing 7 million Anthony Albanese has held formal talks with the Indian PM in New Delhi Wins to Cronulla and the Broncos in the NRL  Idris Elba's diet change for his role in Netflix movie Luther - the Fallen SunSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In this latest Hindi bulletin: The Prime Minister welcomes the murder verdict of the downing of flight M-H-17; New South Wales government offers further funding for flood-devastated farmers; Indian PM talks about importance of a joint address to the problems of extremism and more news.

Listen to the latest SBS Hindi news from India. 28/10/2022

V and Partha chat on a rainy day in Dallas about this week's trending topics in news and life.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Simon anchored Monday's edition of "Live Broadcast" from Washington for India's international news channel WION.

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Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine's hardest-hit city, Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Monday — as his chief prosecutor called Russian President Vladimir Putin the “main war criminal of the 21st century.” President Joe Biden is set to speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he presses world leaders to take a hard line against Russia's Ukraine invasion.David Horowitz is a noted conservative commentator and a national bestselling author. His books on the Trump wars have sold over 500,000 copies. He is the founder and CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles and the author of The Enemy Within, Blitz, Big Agenda, and The Black Book of the American Left. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 180 million voters in five Indian states are eligible to vote for new assemblies from this Thursday. The month-long process will be a key test for the ruling BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He wants to keep control of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, which has been ruled by the BJP for the past five years. Modi also wants to keep using Uttar Pradesh as a political laboratory to implement his "Hindutva" agenda. This ideology defines Indian culture as a set of Hindu values to the detriment of religious minorities, especially Muslims. Our correspondents report.

Global diplomacy kicked-off in the New Year with the World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda 2022. This week, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a special ‘State of the World' address at the Davos Agenda via videoconferencing. Chinese President Xi Jinping also addressed the Summit. Let's look at some of the key points raised by both leaders.  On Covid, Modi highlighted India's achievements of having administered 160 crore vaccine doses, adding that a democracy such as India, “has given the world a bouquet of hope. Modi hailed India as the “pharmacy of the world”, while also praising the digital infrastructure built by his government to deal with the pandemic, mentioning contact tracing apps “Aarogya Setu” and “CoWin”.  On the reforms front, Modi talked about his government's achievements in having deregulated several sectors like drones, space, geospatial mapping. “India has carried out big reforms in the outdated telecom sector,” the Indian PM added.  Modi hailed India's entrepreneurial talent, mentioning that the country now has more than 60,000 registered startups and over 80 unicorns, of which, 42 entered the club last year itself. He also pitched India as an investment destination for the world.  Meanwhile, Xi stressed more on the challenges that the world faces amid the pandemic. He spoke about ensuring the equitable distribution of vaccines among countries, and said that China has already delivered 2 billion doses of vaccines to 120 countries and will further contribute another 1 billion doses to African countries.  On the challenge of ensuring economic recovery of the world economy, Xi said, the global industrial and supply chains have been disrupted. There can be serious negative spillovers if major economies take U-turn in monetary policies. Amid heightened tensions between the US and China over Taiwan, and amid fears of a possible Russian intervention in Ukraine, Xi said the world needs to discard Cold War mentality, as acts of containment, suppression or confrontation are harmful. Hailing his country's economic growth, Xi Jinping talked about the 8% growth in China's GDP in 2021, and the importance of bettering economic and trade ties with other countries through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or RCEP.  Clearly, both the leaders had different perspectives and standpoints, which meant that they stressed somewhat different themes. However, at the same time, there was some similarity in their approaches to the challenges of the day, particularly as far as the importance of multilateralism is concerned.    

It finally happened, ladies and gentleman and our non-binary friends. The Holiday News Slowdown has arrived. Late, I might add, but still here at last. But that did not stop Grace and Alex from making you your weekly kickoff show!Welcome to the final Equity Monday of the year. Here's what we got into:The Indian PM's Twitter account was hacked, and used to promote bitcoin. Not a great look for the crypto world.The SenseTime IPO is on hold after the US government "added SenseTime Group Limited to the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List," per the company. The AI listing's delay is not a great look for Chinese tech market liquidity.Fuse added $25 million to its Series B, helping bring insurance products to Southeast Asia.Thirdweb raised $5 million to bring together no-code and Web3, which we think is pretty cool.Don't forget that Equity is back Friday for a final news roundup, and that we have two holiday eps coming during the last two weeks of the year! Talk soon!

Certain aspects of the draught cryptocurrency law may need more debate, following which Prime Minister Modi will make the ultimate decision on crypto regulatory measures in the nation. Opera announced a collaboration with Solana Labs on Friday, December 10, to bring native support for the popular blockchain, allowing it to operate a native Solana wallet alongside all of the ecosystem's dApps.

In this latest SBS Hindi news bulletin of Australia and India: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeals controversial farm laws after nearly a year of mass protests; Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison accused of pandering to right-wing extremists; Australian men's cricket captain Tim Paine resigns over a sexting scandal just weeks before the Ashes series and more. 

India Policy Watch: Countering Wokeism Insights on burning policy issues in India— RSJYou know a term has entered the zeitgeist when it reaches your family WhatsApp group that’s kept alive by aunts and uncles forwarding every dubious message that confirms their biases. So, when I received a message on the group that urged us to celebrate this Diwali with firecrackers to show the ‘wokes’ their place, I realised the word has crossed some kind of a threshold. And then I noticed social media was full of similar assertion of Sanatan Dharma against wokes (and Christians too). Some kind of international conspiracy of the wokes had to be thwarted, our religion and tradition had to be reclaimed and, apparently, lighting a firecracker was the place to start. Another day, another assault on our dharma and another lightening response by us because we are ever vigilant now. And that set me thinking about wokeism. Is it a nihilistic, virtue signaling, leftist movement that imagines victimhood, rejects tradition and reduces everything to identity? Or, is it an easy catch-all pejorative that serves as a convenient fig leaf for bigots of every shade to run down any progressive, liberal idea without engaging with their merit? Are all anti-woke responses the same? Or, is there a right and a wrong cause to protest wokeism? Blooming Of The Conservative MindI thought it will be useful to go back to the original text that questioned ‘openness’ and relativism to search for answers. Allan Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind (1987) was the earliest and remains perhaps the most intellectually stimulating challenge to the dogma of liberalism that had take over the academic and media bastions in America. Bloom, a professor of Philosophy at University of Chicago, wrote the book based on the ‘sample’ of students he taught over a couple of decades starting from the 60s. Bloom took a counterintuitive view to the liberal consensus that keeping an open mind that’s free of prejudice is the way for a society to progress. He countered:“Prejudices, strong prejudices, are visions about the way things are. They are divinations of the order of the whole of things, and hence the road to a knowledge of that whole is by way of erroneous opinions about it. Error is indeed our enemy, but it alone points to the truth and therefore deserves our respectful treatment. The mind that has no prejudices at the outset is empty. It can only have been constituted by a method that is unaware of how difficult it is to recognize that a prejudice is a prejudice.”While woke as a term and cultural phenomenon was still a few decades away, Bloom had anticipated its origin and its pathologies quite accurately. For Bloom, the moral goal of every education system and, therefore, of the society, was to produce a human being who is in accord with its fundamental principle. As he wrote:“Aristocracies want gentlemen, oligarchies men who respect and pursue money, and democracies lovers of equality. Democratic education, whether it admits it or not, wants and needs to produce men and women who have the tastes, knowledge, and character supportive of a democratic regime.”So, what did this mean for the US? For Bloom, the moral imperative of a US citizen was quite clear:“Above all he was to know the rights doctrine; the Constitution, which embodied it; and American history, which presented and celebrated the founding of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."“A powerful attachment to the letter and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence gently conveyed, appealing to each man's reason, was the goal of the education of democratic man.”This starting position is important to appreciate when anyone is looking to imitate or transplant anti-woke rhetoric into their societies. If you live in a democracy and value its moral principles, your argument against the liberal project will have to be founded on this truth. The Three MovesFrom this starting position, Bloom makes three key moves in his dissection of where liberalism or wokeism, as we might call it today, loses its way.First, he argues that allegiance to the natural rights of man should supersede all other allegiances or identities. The folksy way of saying this is you should do no favour to your first cousin that you will deny a fellow citizen. In his scepticism of what is called progressive thought, Bloom didn’t hark back to an ancient way of life or a religious code. Instead, he stuck to the first principles of liberty:“This called for something very different from the kinds of attachment required for traditional communities where myth and passion as well as severe discipline, authority, and the extended family produced an instinctive, unqualified, even fanatic patriotism, unlike the reflected, rational, calm, even self-interested loyalty—not so much to the country but to the form of government and its rational principles—required in the United States.”“The palpable difference between these two can easily be found in the changed understanding of what it means to be an American. The old view was that, by recognizing and accepting man's natural rights, men found a fundamental basis of unity and sameness. Class, race, religion, national origin or culture all disappear or become dim when bathed in the light of natural rights, which give men common interests and make them truly brothers. The immigrant had to put behind him the claims of the Old World in favor of a new and easily acquired education. This did not necessarily mean abandoning old daily habits or religions, but it did mean subordinating them to new principles. There was a tendency, if not a necessity, to homogenize nature itself.”So far, so good. The liberals would grudgingly and partially agree to this too. It is the second move of Bloom, both dazzlingly insightful and contentious, that made the book a bestseller and launched a vigorous conservative intellectual movement against what passed as liberalism in the late 20th century.  Bloom made a strong case against openness and relativism, two notions dear to the liberal hearts. What’s the basis for deeming these as lofty ideals? The pursuit of being open to every thought and ideology without rigorously questioning it. Or, the belief that every culture and its way of life hold virtues that might be different from ours but are virtues nevertheless. Bloom eviscerated the liberal platform that dominated (and still dominates) the US academic and intellectual environs. On openness, Bloom wrote:“Thus there are two kinds of openness, the openness of indifference —promoted with the twin purposes of humbling our intellectual pride and letting us be whatever we want to be, just as long as we don't want to be knowers—and the openness that invites us to the quest for knowledge and certitude, for which history and the various cultures provide a brilliant array of examples for examination. This second kind of openness encourages the desire that animates and makes interesting every serious student—"I want to know what is good for me, what will make me happy" —while the former stunts that desire.Openness, as currently conceived, is a way of making surrender to whatever is most powerful, or worship of vulgar success, look principled.”Then Bloom laid into cultural relativism:“Men cannot remain content with what is given to them by their culture if they are to be fully human. This is what Plato meant to show by the image of the cave in the Republic and by representing us as prisoners in it. A culture is a cave. He did not suggest going around to other cultures as a solution to the limitations of the cave. Nature should be the standard by which we judge our own lives and the lives of peoples. That is why philosophy, not history or anthropology, is the most important human, science.”And his bold claim that there is reason to believe in superiority of Western culture because it is moored in the natural rights of man and on the primacy of reason.“Cultural relativism succeeds in destroying the West's universal or intellectually imperialistic claims, leaving it to be just another culture. So there is equality in the republic of cultures. Unfortunately the West is defined by its need for justification of its ways or values, by its need for discovery of nature, by its need for philosophy and science. This is its cultural imperative. Deprived of that, it will collapse.”This second move of Bloom is interesting when viewed from an Indian conservative perspective. Let’s consider democracy and its central premise of equality are moral imperatives that are subscribed to by the conservatives. Then when they make a case against woke or liberal ideas, what’s their alternative moral position? That which is rooted in principles of natural rights like it is laid out in our constitution? If it is this, then they have Bloom on their side. Or, is it some principles strewn across multiple ancient texts of the Sanatan Dharma? If it is this, then they will have to prove how these principles will hold good in a modern democracy. Because this was the exact debate on the Hindu Code Bill right after independence. That was an attempt to reconcile the long-running practices of Hinduism to the democratic code we had adapted. It wasn’t easy because, on multiple issues, no reconciliation was possible. The past had to be reformed. I suspect the alternative that most anti-woke voices in India will stand for today will be this harking back to some mythical past where social order was “equal” only in some kind of a twisted way that would justify caste and gender discrimination. This is a subversion of true conservatism as Bloom would point out.The third move of Bloom in his book was how he makes a case for majoritarianism as a virtue. Again, this is interesting from an Indian conservative perspective. For Bloom, liberal democracy was designed in a way where minority interests that are often driven by passion, prejudice or spite cancel each other out for the rational and temperate instincts of the majority to thrive. Pandering to factions and minorities while blaming the majority was antithetical to the democratic project. Here’s Bloom:“Much of the intellectual machinery of twentieth-century American political thought and social science was constructed for the purposes of making an assault on that majority. It treated the founding principles as impediments and tried to overcome the other strand of our political heritage, majoritarianism, in favor of a nation of minorities and groups each following its own beliefs and inclinations. In particular, the intellectual minority expected to enhance its status, presenting itself as the defender and spokesman of all the others.This reversal of the founding intention with respect to minorities is most striking. For the Founders, minorities are in general bad things, mostly identical to factions, selfish groups who have no concern as such for the common good. Unlike older political thinkers, they entertained no hopes of suppressing factions and educating a united or homogeneous citizenry. Instead they constructed an elaborate machinery to contain factions in such a way that they would cancel one another and allow for the pursuit of the common good. The good is still the guiding consideration in their thought, although it is arrived at, less directly than in classical political thought, by tolerating faction. The Founders wished to achieve a national majority concerning the fundamental rights and then prevent that majority from using its power to overturn those fundamental rights. In twentieth-century social science, however, the common good disappears and along with it the negative view of minorities. The very idea of majority—now understood to be selfish interest—is done away with in order to protect the minorities. This breaks the delicate balance between majority and minority in Constitutional thought. In such a perspective, where there is no common good, minorities are no longer problematic, and the protection of them emerges as the central function of government.”This is where Bloom’s words find an echo in the past half a century in India. Read that passage again. The Indian “liberal” fell prey to this cleavage between majority and minority. And they are now buckling under a majoritarian backlash that doesn’t want to restore just the democratic meaning of majority like Bloom would’ve wanted. Rather they want the absolutist kind of majority. This is a problem then in India. Any criticism of wokeism can be used to shove this notion of majority down our collective throats. Any argument against it is considered woke! This then is the closing of the Indian mind. A Framework a Week: No More COP-outs Tools for thinking public policy— Pranay KotasthaneI co-teach a course on Fundamentals of Public Policy. One of the exercises in the course involves developing a policy proposal based on Eugene Bardach’s Eightfold Path to Policy Analysis. One of these eight steps involves coming up with evaluation criteria to compare and judge possible solutions. The four most common criteria, applicable across a wide variety of policy problems, are effectiveness (how well do the proposed solutions solve the stated problem?), efficiency (do the benefits of solutions outweigh their costs), equity (do the proposed solutions account for distributional consequences?), and feasibility (can the administrative and political systems bear the load of implementing the proposed solutions?).Confronting trade-offs across these four criteria is really difficult. No perfect solutions exist. As objective as you can make it appear, it finally comes down to a subjective assessment of deciding the relative importance of these four criteria. Some policy solutions might do well on effectiveness and efficiency but not on equity while many others might be brilliantly equitable and yet ineffective at tackling the policy problem at hand. And now, to this already challenging endeavour has been added another parameter: Emissions Impact.A couple of years ago, I would have argued that given the moral imperative for raising incomes in India, emissions impact shouldn’t be a high voltage concern. I have now updated my Bayesian priors. Whether we like it or not, the emissions reduction commitments made by the Indian PM at COP26 mean that emissions impact will translate into a fifth criterion for evaluating policy options. The weightage to be given for this criterion might well be on the lower side but it must be considered nevertheless. Instead of being a vertical issue with some polluting sectors alone, emissions impact is now a horizontal concern across many unrelated policy sectors.Confronting the trade-offs between raising incomes on one hand and emissions impact on the other will not be easy. There are two wrong directions this evaluation can take. One, analysts may unthinkingly transplant problems and solutions from the West to the Indian context. Ideas such as ‘enforced degrowth’ or Malthusian tirades against the mere existence of people might find more currency. Two, analysts will have to confront the cynical narrative which goes along the lines — “it’s futile to do anything about climate change now; we’re all doomed anyway”. This view can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and inhibit all action on emissions reduction. Policymakers and thinkers need to avoid both these pitfalls and instead think of emissions reduction as another important criterion for evaluating policy options. No more cop-outs.Money Quote: Bertrand Russell on a ‘Kindly’ Philosophy— Pranay KotasthaneIf you curate your YouTube subscriptions well, the recommendation algorithm can be quite rewarding. I realised this, yet again, when my feed threw up this 1952 interview with well-known mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell (30 minutes). If you can, go through the entire interview yourself. I’ll talk about just two ideas that I found most intriguing. One, Russell’s reply to interviewer Romney Wheeler’s question on a philosophy that can counter Marx applies quite well to the identitarian politics of the information age. “Q: For those of us who reject Marx, can you offer us a more positive philosophy to help us towards a more hopeful future?A: One of the problems has been that of dogmatically believing in something or the other. And I think all these matters are full of doubt, and the rational man will not be too sure he's right. I think we ought always entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine, not even mine. No! We should accept our philosophies with a measure of doubt. What I do think is this, if a philosophy is to bring happiness, it should be inspired by kindly feeling. Now, Marx is not inspired by a kindly feeling. Marx pretended that he wanted the happiness of the proletariat, what he really wanted was the unhappiness of the Bourgeois. And it was because of that negative element, because of that hate element, that his philosophy produced disaster. A philosophy which aims to go good must be one inspired by kindly feeling, and not by unkindly feeling (emphasis mine).The lodestar philosophical ideas of today on all sides of politics, unfortunately, appear similar in intent if not content, to the Marxian thought. They are interested more in demeaning and then defeating the ‘other’ than winning them over. Secondly, when you reflect on Russell’s lines, the political genius of Gandhi becomes crystal clear. It was a philosophy that was inspired more by ‘kindly’ feeling than ‘hatred’. For a political philosophy to have this character is rare. The other idea that struck me was Russell’s response to the question: what are the things the world needs to be happier? Russell gives a three-fold answer: a world government, approximate economic equality among different parts of the world, and a stable population. The first part is well-understood given Russell’s views against the first world war and his tireless advocacy of pacifism. What interests me is his answer about population. He expands that since “food produce cannot rise appreciably, there must not be many more people than we have now”. Several towering intellectuals of that age, from Russell to Ambedkar, believed that population was a problem because we will run out of food. Technological advances proved them all wrong on this count. The world population is nearly 7.7 billion today, thrice of what it was in 1950. The rates of increase in population have fallen appreciably in the last thirty years but it was prosperity and not famines that led to this social change. No wonder then that Russell is believed to have said “I Would Never Die for My Beliefs Because I Might Be Wrong”.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Podcast] Know Your Enemy: Unraveling Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow. A deep-dive into Ravelstein, Saul Bellow’s roman à clef about the Straussian political philosopher Allan Bloom, who achieved late-in-life wealth and fame after publishing his controversial best-seller, The Closing of the American Mind.[Report] IEA on Implementing Effective Emissions Trading Systems: Lessons from international experiences.[Podcast] A Puliyabaazi on institutional public policy change in India. Subscribe at publicpolicy.substack.com

Listen to news from and about the Church in Asia in a capsule around 10 minutes.The meeting of Narendra Modi and Pope Francis as well as the Indian PM's invitation to visit his country made global headlines. Religious leaders have appealed for peace and unity amid repression and abuses. Filed by UCA News reporters, compiled by Rock Ronald Rozario, edited by Peter Hill, presented by John Laurenson, background score by Andre Louis and produced by Binu Alex for ucanews.comFor news in and about the Church in Asia, visit www.ucanews.comTo contribute please visit www.ucanews.com/donateTwitter Handle: twitter.com/ucanews

You won an award from Indian PM and got a grant from French president. How did this magic happen? Most security companies advertise fear. How do you think about marketing security? Small business owners has not much to lose. Why should they invest in security? Isn't it the responsibility of the packages like Magento to keep their code clean and secure? What makes a great leader? What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you? What is your definition of a good life? Connect with Shikhil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shikhil-sharma/Connect with me: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjude Website: https://jjude.com/ Newsletter: https://jjude.com/subscribe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjude/ Email: podcast@jjude.com Executive Coaching Program: https://gravitaswins.com Thank you for listening. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple podcast? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in finding this podcast. And it boosts my spirits.

Welcome to the third season "The Open Podcast" where we discuss key socio-political issues of the week in detail. In this episode, I have discussed the evolution of the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal. I have also talked about the question that can he become PM of India? YouTube- youtube.com/anopenletter001 | Newsletter - https://www.getrevue.co/profile/anopenletter001 | Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/AnOpenLetter #AamAdmiParty #ArvindKejriwal #AAP #AnOpenLetter #TheOpenPodcast

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has announced that she will be directing her upcoming project titled 'Emergency', based on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's life. This and more in our weekly bulletin from the world of cinema and music.

It is unclear how many people were in the 12-storey building at the time. Also: proposals by France and Germany to restart EU summits with Russia criticised, and Indian PM calls for 'Made in India Toys'.

This Episode is Bilingual. As the guest is a singer, there are songs in Hindi. Mandira Sur, has a Masters degree in Fine Arts, a diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education, a Diploma in Marathi music. She has even Participated in Painting Exhibition in Pune for two consecutive years. Mandira's Interests are many; right from playing Golf and Badminton to Gardening, Ornithology, Astronomy, Sculpture and Painting. Where Music is concerned, she has been a Student of Ram Krishna Das, Gwalior Gharana and of Dr. Soma Ghosh, Padmashri, Benaras Gharana. She belongs to a family of singers. She has sung in various languages, which include Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi and Oriya. She lives in South Africa. She has sung in the International film festival in honor of the Indian PM.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, faces calls for a national lockdown as India sees its highest daily rise in Covid-19 deaths. Meanwhile, five Indian states await local election results in what could be an early test of support for the government's handling of the pandemic. We hear the latest, and discuss the political impact of the Covid crisis with two local analysts. Also in the programme: Poland's outgoing human rights ombudsman on his country's slide away from democratic norms; and a new exhibition showcasing contemporary art from both North and South Korea. (Photo: Grieving family members of Covid-19 victims at a cremation ground in New Delhi. Credit: EPA/IDREES MOHAMMED)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's letter of appreciation to Bollywood actor Anupam Kher for his new book ‘Your Best Day is today’, is doing the rounds in India. Listen to our weekly update on the Hindi and Punjabi entertainment industry, packed with more such hot and happening news.

In this bulletin... ** South Australia enforces ban on single use plastic from today... **In India, PM Modi receives COVID-19 vaccine...**In sports, Alexei Popyrin wins his maiden ATP title... and more news

This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a particular public policy problem/solution?PS: If you enjoy listening instead of reading, we have this edition available as an audio narration on all podcasting platforms courtesy the good folks at Ad-Auris. Global Policy Watch — Storming Se Storming Tak: From 1642 To 2021- RSJHere’s a short quiz to begin things. What’s common to these dates (not an exhaustive list)?4 January 1642: EnglandFeb 27, 1933: Germany Feb 23, 1981: SpainApril 27, 2017: MacedoniaDifficult? Here’s a clue. The latest entrant to this listJan 6, 2021: USA‘Workout-able’ now? These are select instances of attacks on parliament buildings in democracies over the years. Of course, this is different from attacks that happen within the parliament building where lawmakers have a go at each other using microphone stands, paper-weights and files as projectiles. That’s a rich and glorious tradition where Taiwan, South Korea and India are global leaders.The attacks on parliament from the outside is a different phenomenon. It points to a fracture in the common belief among citizens about the power or legitimacy of the sovereign. This is not mere symbolism. Often the attacks are real attempts to disrupt or change the outcomes of a parliamentary process to elect the head of the government. That’s what happened, say, in Spain on Feb 23, 1981 when Lt. Col Tejero and his small band of army men burst into the lower house of the Spanish legislature during the vote to elect a new Prime Minister. The attempt to overthrow the democratic regime came unstuck when King Juan Carlos denounced it in a televised address. The storming of the Macedonian parliament in 2017 was done in somewhat similar circumstances though without any section of army backing it. That brings us to Germany. The fire at Reichstag in 1933 right after the Hitler had been sworn in as the Chancellor was blamed on a communist conspiracy. It is almost certain now that this was engineered by the Nazis to demonise their opponents. This incident of arson was then used by the Nazis to issue a nationwide emergency and pursue the communists with a vengeance. The Communists MPs were arrested and the Nazis won the elections to those vacant seats as was expected. Within a year the Nazis had complete control over the German state. You know how that story ends.The Original StormingMy interest, however, is in the first instance of the storming of a Parliament: Jan 4, 1642. This was no ordinary rebel laying siege over the lawmakers in Westminster. It was Charles I, the king of England. He entered the Parliament with armed soldiers to arrest five MPs who he accused of treason. What had they done? Well, to the king and his loyalists, they were anti-nationals. Sounds familiar. They were accused of encouraging Scotland to invade England and a conspiracy to defame the king. Charles went into the parliament and called out the name of the five MPs seeking their arrest. He asked the House speaker, William Lenthall, about their whereabouts. Lenthall responded:“May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this House is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here; and I humbly beg your majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me.” In a historic first of sorts, the speaker had sided with the parliament over the divine will of the king.“All my birds have flown,” Charles I said as he scanned the member benches for the five MPs.The storming of the parliament by Charles I was a seminal moment in the history of democracy. The tussle for sovereignty between the parliament and monarchy that had been simmering for over three decades had reached its flashpoint. The English parliament in those days was a collection of landed gentry who controlled the exchequer through their power of collecting taxes. The king needed its approval to raise taxes. By the time Charles I ascended the throne in 1625, the Crown was deep in debt no thanks to the expensive wars of the Tudor and Stuart periods and the lavish lifestyles of the royalty. This apart Charles had other problems too. There was a deep suspicion among the aristocrats about the strength of his Protestant affiliation after he married the Catholic Bourbon princess Maria of France. His subsequent religious acts did nothing to dispel this impression. The desire of Charles I to go to war with Scotland meant he wanted the parliament to increase taxes and do his bidding. The parliament continued to resist and Charles dissolved it in 1629. The next 11 years when he ruled without a sitting parliament is termed his ‘personal rule’. He introduced new taxes arbitrarily, supported Catholic religious policies and hounded the aristocrats who opposed him. The tyranny was going well but for a small hitch. He still needed the parliament to convene for collecting the tax revenues. He called a new parliament in 1640 in the hope he will be able to control it. Not quite. The parliament passed an act that forbade its own dissolution and went about rolling back the policies that Charles had set in motion. The stage was set for him to storm the parliament looking for the errant MPs.The Post-Metaphysical AgeThe storming of the parliament led to what is collectively called the English Civil Wars (1642-1651) between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. Charles I was tried and executed in 1649 (none of this namby-pamby impeachment business in those days). There were three key outcomes of the civil wars:The replacement of English monarch by the Commonwealth of EnglandThe consolidation of Protestant ascendancy and the defeat of Catholicism in England. The downstream impact of this was hugeThe precedent that the English monarch cannot rule without the Parliament’s approval. The seal of Parliamentary sovereignty and the establishment of individual rights, however, were legally established only after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. There’s a subplot here. A gifted English polymath who had fled England in 1640 to Paris watched all this unfold with interest and concern. A man of science who counted Galileo, Bacon and Mersenne among his friends, he was developing a theory of about people, nature and politics as he came to terms with the chaos in his country. He was also the tutor to Charles II, the young prince, who was in exile in Paris. By 1650, he was ready with his magnum opus that broke new ground on the relation between the state and its subjects. In 1651, he returned to England. His name was Thomas Hobbes. The book was Leviathan. The Genesis Of The Modern Liberal StateHobbes is, arguably, the founder of modern political philosophy and Leviathan is a masterpiece of original thinking. Hobbes made three core arguments in it:The State of Nature: Human beings left to themselves will pursue their objectives of maximising their comforts. These pursuits will bring them in conflict with others. People are similar (within a range) in terms of their physical and mental prowess. So no one person can dominate others for long. This led him to conclude that humans in their state of nature would be in constant strife with one another. “A war of everyone against everyone” is how he called it. In this state, he famously said, human life would be “nasty, brutish and short.”The Laws of Nature: Hobbes argued that humans were rational beings who understood the futility of living in the state of nature. They would seek a practical solution to establish peace. To Hobbes, this solution was for people to establish mutual covenant (agreement) among themselves to submit to the authority of a sovereign. Simply put, people will be willing to forego some of their freedoms to a sovereign institution in return for peace and rule of law governed by that authority.Unlimited Sovereign Authority: For Hobbes, once the people had come together to hand over the power to the sovereign, its power was unlimited. There was no quid pro quo involved here. No real checks and balances. So long as the sovereign kept peace among its people and protected them from outside powers, it retained its political legitimacy. Nothing else mattered. Any attempt to split the powers of the sovereign would render it ineffective. The impact of Leviathan on future political philosophers was profound. In many ways, it is the foundational text of the modern state. Everyone from Locke, Rousseau, Weber to Rawls have used it either as a springboard or as a counter to develop their social and political theories. The criticism of Hobbes over the centuries is also useful to shine a light on the originality of his thinking. The usual arguments offered against his political philosophy include:A bleak view of human nature: The short conclusion easily drawn from Leviathan is that Hobbes held no illusions about the nature of human beings. Left to themselves in a natural state, they would be in an endless series of internecine wars. This is Hunger Games territory. But Hobbes was a bit more nuanced than that. To him, it is not human nature to be in a war of everyone against everyone. Instead, in the absence of laws and its enforcer, human beings pursuing their rational interests will get in the way of each other. This will be the basis for strife and not the absence of better angels of their natureSocial contract theorist: Some view Hobbes belonging to the line of social contract theorists who thought and wrote about the arrangement between the society and the state or the ruled and the rulers. This isn’t exactly accurate. Social contract theory assumes that society already exists with a contract among its members. The society then enters into a ‘second contract’ with the state by relinquishing some of its freedom in exchange for peace and stability from the sovereign. For Hobbes, there was no second contract. The society or the state don’t exist ab initio. There is only a single contract - the covenant between the members of the society to come together. The sovereign emerges from this. It is almost like the ‘Big Bang’ theory of political philosophy.Totalitarian: The other criticism of Hobbes is he justifies a totalitarian regime when he lets the sovereign off the hook for any kind of quid pro quo contract with the society. This is misreading of the term absolute. Hobbes considers the sovereign absolute in terms of its power which means they ‘can interfere’ in ‘any aspect’ of the lives of its citizens. This is different from a totalitarian regime which is based on the idea that the state ‘will permeate’ into ‘every aspect’ of the lives of its people. In fact, Hobbes was the first to free religion from the construct of the state. Once you are free from theology, you set the basis for a liberal state. Bookended By HobbesThe storming of the Capitol building by pro-Trump protesters marks a moment in the history of democracy in America. There’s always a temptation to over-read the current moment. But the irreversible slide of the discourse, the shrinking of the middle ground with a loony, conspiracy-theory fed right and an anarchist, self-righteous left and an almost cult-like adherence to prior beliefs that get accentuated in the echo chambers of social media have meant this moment was nigh. The strength of the social covenant (“we, the people) is under stress rarely experienced before. Once that covenant is broken, the political authority wanes or gets delegitimised as we see it happening in America for most of last year. Unless checked and reversed, we will be back to the state of nature. Chaos will follow. Maybe there’s a polymath philosopher watching all of this unfold with unease while developing an original political thesis like Hobbes over four hundred years ago. The storming of the English parliament of 1642 and the siege of the Capitol in 2021 seem to bookend the political era whose foundation was laid by Hobbes. There’s a need for a new social contract for these times. A Framework a Week: OOOTools for thinking public policy— Pranay KotasthaneThe union government’s first post-pandemic budget will be presented in the Parliament on Feb 1. The all-consuming buildup has already begun as if it were a Rajinikanth movie. As the budget date nears, you will come across many more number-based narratives — the need for higher public health expenditure, the imperative to reduce allocations for subsidies, and the necessity to adequately fund the requirements of our armed forces. So let’s revisit a framework that helps put these numbers in perspective. The Outlays-Outputs-Outcomes (OOO) framework is a useful way to analyse the many schemes that the Finance Minister will announce on Feb 1. Inputs/Outlays refer to the resources provided to a scheme or project that the government runs. Once the budget is presented, virtually all the public discussion will be on these outlays. This gives an idea of how the union government prioritises all its functions. But as we all know, outlays for a project is no guarantee for success. To measure success, policies or schemes need two other parameters: outputs and outcomes. Outputs refer to the direct and measurable product of program activities, often expressed in physical terms or units. Outcomes, on the other hand, are the long-term benefits that a project or intervention is designed to deliver.Using this framework allows us to scrutinise government schemes better. As Ajay Shah writes:This framework became famous around education, where the inputs are school buildings and recruitment of teachers, the outputs are kids who are enrolled and attend school, and the outcomes are what the kids actually know. From about 2004 onwards, we have understood that very large increases in public expenditure in the per-pupil expenses were associated with essentially no gains in the outcomes. The education bureaucracy has proclaimed its victories as counted by school buildings, teachers employed or kids enrolled. But at a fundamental level, state spending on elementary education has not delivered: vast increases in the input has not delivered gains in the outcome.This framework also yields a useful vocabulary for measuring success. We can assess policies in terms of its economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Economy refers to inputs. It answers the question: are project inputs being purchased at the right price? Efficiency relates to outputs over inputs. It answers the question: what is the relationship between investment in inputs and the outputs that are produced? Effectiveness relates to outcomes over outputs. It answers the question: are outputs leading to the expected outcomes? (all definitions are taken from Indicators of Inputs, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts in Security and Justice Programming, DFID).Ideally, any government programme should begin with a theory of change that connects the desired end state (outcomes) to the programme activities that need to be carried out (outputs) which further require a set of resources (inputs). Seen from this frame, a policy that fails to achieve the desired outcomes can mean two things. One, that there was an implementation failure. Insufficient outlays or difficulty in converting outlays into outputs due to corruption are examples of implementation issues. Two, that there was a theory of change failure which means that the assumed causal linkage between outputs and outcomes was incorrect. In the Indian context, a commonly held notion is that governments have good policies but poor implementation. What’s less appreciated is that policies often fail because the underlying theory of change itself is inaccurate. Better data and feedback help uncover this theory of change failure. For example, ASER surveys have now shifted the conversation on education by disproving the theory that more schools and better-paid teachers alone can lead to better student learning outcomes. The National Family Health Survey data can similarly help question the assumed causal linkages between health outlays, outputs, and outcomes. It is indeed a positive sign that on both health and education, we are talking effectiveness and not just outlays. This reflects that governance in these areas is maturing. PS: For the upcoming budget, skip the outlay PDFs and open this new document called the Output Outcome Framework. It maps each government scheme outlay to the desired outcomes and outputs over the next financial year. If the budget were also to map the performance of each scheme against the promised outcomes in the year gone by, it will go a long way in correcting both implementation and theory of change failures.Matsyanyaaya: False Equivalences with Chinese Characteristics Big fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthanePolitical turmoil in the US has understandably shaken many of us here in India. Events of this magnitude lead to a general despondency about democracy itself. The hope is that this despondency would get displaced by introspection and positive alternatives. At the same time, we need to guard against narratives that cite these events to equate the US and China. One strand of Indian strategic thought has long held the view that a world order shaped predominantly by the PRC might be just as good (or bad) for India as the current one underpinned by US power. China’s border incursions last year led to the deprecation of this narrative but the churn in the US can give it a new lease of life. Aided by the PRC’s attempts at drawing false equivalences on one hand and spurred by the self-criticism that is bound to dominate American thinking, we might see arguments such as this make a comeback:We do not know how Chinese hegemony will work in the future, but we know the exploitative and heinous character of the French and the British Empires. The question is, why are we not as afraid of the West as we are of the Chinese? [China is Not Alone in Adding to the Indian Ocean Woes, Economic & Political Weekly, Atul Bhardwaj, April 2018]Nothing can be further from the truth. For one, there is enough evidence to suggest that a Sinocentric world order will not align with India’s quest for yogakshema — peace and prosperity for all Indians. Look at the way China has alienated — simultaneously and purposively — a new generation of peoples in all of its neighbouring countries. Look at how the Chinese Communist Party has imposed one language on a diverse set of its own peoples. And finally, look at how it has transformed its all-weather friend into a mere tributary. Second, it’s true that the US conduct on the liberal international order is not untainted. But the norm of a liberal international order is in India’s own self-interest. We must and we do question the US when it deviates from this norm. For example, the Indian PM’s condemnation of the Capitol violence is possible in the current order. In a Sinocentric world, this norm itself will cease to exist. If the Indian PM were to criticise something even remotely equivalent in China, the party-state will spring into concerted anti-India action in economic, political, and military dimensions.These are two clear and important differences that we shouldn’t take our eyes off in the zeitgeist. HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Book] Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes with an essay by the late W. G. Pogson Smith (skip the religious bits) [Article] Tom Mctague in The Atlantic: Is This How Greatness Ends? [Article] Rathin Roy distinguishes between the better and worse forms of deficit financing.[Paper] Abel Schumann’s OECD paper Using Outcome Indicators to Improve Policies is a must-read for public policy enthusiasts.[Podcast] Indrani Bagchi discusses the geopolitics of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on Puliyabaazi. . Get on the email list at publicpolicy.substack.com

Thousands of farmers, chiefly from Punjab, currently camping at several borders along India's capital city, expressed their displeasure with the latest edition of prime minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio talk by clanking metal plates.

Heyy everyone, welcome to the second episode of the IPS Podcast! I talk about a recent scam, a recent controversy, and the Make For World Scheme introduced by the Indian PM. There are also some announcements about the expansion of the IPS 'brand'. And this episode is complete with my views on all the things discussed. Host: Abeer Rao Distributor: Anchor.fm Microphone: Fifine T669 Laptop: Apple MacBook Air 2017 Recording program: Voice Memos Edited in: iMovie and Anchor I have been Abeer Rao, thanks for watching and tune in for the next episode of the IPS Podcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ipspodcast/message

World News in 7 minutes. Tuesday 1st September.Transcript here: send7.org/transcriptsToday: Belarus President blacklisted. Biden on Trump. Canada statue torn down. Venezuela covid testing. Paul Rusesabagina arrested. Kenya rising water levels. Former Indian PM dies. Russian opposition attacked. Indian lawyer fined 1 rupee.Please leave a review on apple podcasts or on podchaser in English or your native language.With Stephen Devincenzi and Namitha Ragunath.--------------------SEND7 (Simple English News Daily in 7 minutes) tells news in intermediate English. Every day, listen to the most important stories in the world in slow, clear English.This easy English news podcast is perfect for English learners, people with English as a second language, and people who want to hear a fast news update from around the world. Learn English through hard topics, but simple grammar. SEND7 covers all news including politics, business, natural events and human rights. For more information visit send7.org/contact

In this episode, Dr Happymon Jacob speaks to Mr Prem Shankar Jha(Managing Editor, Financial World; Former Information Advisor to V.P.Singh) to understand his interpretation of PM Modi’s statement during the June 19 All-Party meeting on China. The conversation attempts to unpack the reasons behind PM Modi’s statement which became controversial amongst the Indian strategic community. Mr Jha interprets the statement as a signalling strategy that the Indian PM used to signal to China. He argues that the PM was factually correct in stating that the Chinese have not entered India territory as the Chinese have only forced their claims on disputed areas. Therefore the PM’s statement is a call for de-escalation. Mr Jha argues that media coverage of this statement undermines this strategy by misinterpreting the PM’s words. Mr Jha also discusses the reasons behind the present Chinese aggression at the border and the future of Sino-Indian relations.

In this episode, Dr Happymon Jacob discusses PM Modi's statement during the all-party meeting on China with Mr Prem Shankar Jha (Managing Editor, Financial World; Former Information Advisor to V.P.Singh). The conversation attempts to unpack the reason behind PM Modi's statement which became controversial amongst the Indian strategic community. Mr Jha interprets the statement as a signalling strategy that the Indian PM used to signal to China. He argues that the PM was factually correct in stating that the Chinese have not entered India territory as the Chinese have only forced their claims on disputed areas. Therefore the PM's statement is a call for de-escalation. Mr Jha argues that media coverage of this statement undermines this strategy by misinterpreting the PM's words. Mr Jha also discusses the reasons behind the present Chinese aggression at the border and the future of Sino-Indian relations.

Indian PM addresses nation as 20 Indian soldiers reported killed in border-skirmish. China has not released casualty-figures for its own troops. Also, Facebook bans all foreign adverts ahead of US presidential election to prevent political interference, and English Premier League football is back - after 100 days of lockdown.

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You might Narenda Modi, Indian PM, but he rules the World's biggest democracy. More than 600 million people have casted their votes in the latest Indian elections: this is twice the total population of America. And who did they voted for? Well, you might be surprised but the country of yoga, non-violence and spirituality is also the country were the far-right wing has won the elections… again. Narendra Modi's party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has a taste for nationalism that makes Donald Trump look like a Hollywood liberal. They combine their anti immigration rhetoric with an extreme religiosity. BJP wants a Hinduist India, and their biggest enemies are the Muslims, who make the largest religious minority in the country. 200 million Indian Muslims are suffering the continuous harassment of fanatic groups, including the cow vigilantes while the government looks the other way. And what does the sacred cows have to do with all of this? Why is India turning far-right? In this video we will answer to all of those questions.

On this week's Cock & Bull Cyrus is joined by Aakash Mehta and Abbas Momin. Cyrus and Aakash score Abbas' choice of discussion topics throughout and while they're at it the three of them discuss celebrities getting trolled because of political opinions, the post prime minister ship career of Indian PM's, memorial plaques for glaciers, and what makes for permissible evidence in court in light of the Pehlu Khan acquittal case. Follow Aakash on @kuchbhimehta on instagram Listen to Waddplayah here: https://ivmpodcasts.com/waddaplayah Listen to Varta Lab here: https://ivmpodcasts.com/vartalab Do send in AMA questions for Cyrus by tweeting them to @cyrussaysin or e-mailing them at whatcyrussays@gmail.com In case you're late to the party and want to catch up on previous episodes of Cyrus Says you can do so at: www.ivmpodcasts.com/cyrussays This episode of Cyrus Says is powered by Storytel: https://www.storytel.com/in/en/ Use the link storytel.com/ivm to get a 30 day free trial as opposed to a 14 day free trial. You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan today at the ground-breaking ceremony of a corridor to the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara stated Navjot Singh Sidhu should become the Indian Prime minister for improving the relation between both India and Pakistan. He made this statement responding to the controversy regarding Sidhu's previous visit to Pakistan which created headlines when the congress leader visited for the swearing in ceremony of his friend Khan. Khan said he hopes that they don’t have to wait for Sidhu to become Indian PM for everlasting friendship between the two nations.

When respected Indian PM decided to give a post demonetization brief on NYE.

The survey by the Indian PM that broke all the polling rules and started a mass protest

Join us as we discuss Indian Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US & more with famous Indian comedian Sanjay Manaktala....the FIRST ever guest on True Story!!!

Listen to Eric Sprott share his views on eye-opening findings in the physical markets of gold and silver; with particular focus on Indian precious metal demand, Comex inventories, and the discussion of physical shorts in the market. Tune-in to the Wrap Up!